Tongaat taxi drivers threaten to take matters into their own hands

Taxi association members walked out of a meeting last night, after disagreeing with the way the Department of Transport (DoT) is handling the issue of lift club operators in the Tongaat area.

The taxi and bus associations requested the meeting with DoT, because they feel that illegal lift clubs are undermining their business.

The traditional lift clubs between parents taking turns to take kids to school, have evolved to people setting up a shuttle service with a handful of Quantums.

The taxi and bus groups want these private shuttle services to be regulated and illegal ones to be stopped.

About 80 representatives from the lift clubs, taxis and bus groups met at the Tongaat Central Library on Thursday night to address these issues.

Nozipho Nxumalo from DoT said it is up to the police to enforce the law.

The taxi group responded to this by leaving, stating that they will take matters into their own hands.

The bus drivers on the other hand remained and pleaded for help from DoT, saying that they cannot survive due to the growing number of lift clubs.

“The lift clubs are interfering and illegal operators are making it impossible for us to make ends meet,” said a bus operator, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.

The general frustration among the lift club drivers is that they have not been able to renew their operating licences, because DoT has put them on hold.

“How are we going to sort out this problem? We cannot get licenses to operate legally, but we also cannot stop this service, because people in the community rely on us,” said one of the lift club operators, who also wanted to remain anonymous.