Lux said he was at Maponya mall to protect it from being attacked.
Soweto parliament president Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini has challenged claims of a turf war between taxi drivers and e-hailers in the township, relegating it to just “competition” in the industry.
Lux spoke to broadcaster eNCA outside Maponya Mall on Friday, where a 27-year-old e-hailing driver was killed on Wednesday.
“What we managed to establish is that the taxi industry, Soweto Taxi Service (STS), and the e-hailing organisations are clear that they are not fighting. If they are not fighting, then who is fighting?”
Lux further described the existing tensions between e-hailing drivers and taxi drivers as “competition”.
“There is business competition, not tensions. I think we, as media and leaders, need to be careful with our words because we are then spreading messages that there are tensions between taxis and e-hailing services. There are no tensions; there is competition that needs to be regulated,” he said.
He said taxi and e-hailing drivers worked well together at several malls, including Maponya Mall, which was shut down on Thursday in protest at the killing.
In sharp contrast to Lux’s claims, protesters claimed they were not allowed to order e-hailing services at the mall, while residents confirmed that to do so, they would need to leave the mall’s premises and wait at nearby petrol stations or robots.
Despite Gauteng MEC for transport Kedibone Diale-Tlabela telling the community that the mall had guaranteed a space would be available for e-hailing services, an angry crowd demanded taxi operators leave the mall premises within seven days.
ALSO READ: ‘That would be thuggery’ – National Taxi Alliance on e-hailing protection payments
Killed for being new?
Lux seemed to suggest that the e-hailer’s death may have been connected to his being new in the industry, and because he was not known in Soweto.
“It is very clear that the young man, may his soul rest in peace, was new in Soweto, not only in the e-hailing space. The family that I was with confirmed that the young man started in e-hailing just on Monday. That is why Bolt services in Soweto and Johannesburg do not know him, that is why Uber services, e-hailing organisations do not know him,” he said.
The insinuation that the driver should have been part of an organisation of local e-hailers, or paid protection money to a local taxi association, was not confirmed by him, but is strengthened by reports of such formations and extortion in KwaZulu-Natal.
Last year, The North Coast Courier reported that e-hailing drivers were charged a “mandatory joining fee” amounting to R20 000, with an additional monthly charge of between R600 and R1 000. This, the Dolphin Coast Taxi Association said, was to restrict the number of e-hailing services operating in the area. Its goal was to reduce the number of operators to a quarter of its current number, or just 25, in Ballito. The National Taxi Alliance (NTA) said it did not approve of the practice.
ALSO READ: ‘Minister, please step in’: Turf war between taxis and e-hailers as mall shuts down and taxi burns
The real community is here!
The community of Pimville, where the Maponya mall is located, has requested that the mall be closed for seven days to observe a mourning period for the deceased driver. However, it was business as usual on Friday.
Lux said he was at the mall to protect it from being attacked, and suggested that the protesters were not from the area.
“People call themselves communities when they are a sponsored crowd. I want to say to them, the real community is here. Let us see if there will be any anarchy here.
“There will not be any anarchy because the people of Pimville, Soweto, the real ones, are here now.
“I am a homeowner in Pimville. I am not renting here, so the ones that are renting must not come and tell us here,” he said.
Lux became famous in 2021 when Maponya mall and other malls in Soweto were looted. He was part of a group of people who claimed they were protecting Maponya Mall with guns.
He is also a former leader of Operation Dudula.
NOW READ: One dead, two injured after e-hailing vehicles torched at Maponya Mall
