Taxi operators defend street car wash

The washing of taxis at the M4 entrance to Ballito is a constant bugbear with residents, who complain that it is “unsightly”.

Ballito resident Brian Carr said, “The taxis are being washed at the robots in Ballito. The area attracts a lot of visitors and it is unsightly to see the taxis washed on the side of the road with water flowing into the main road.”

Residents have also questioned where the taxis are getting water from. In a letter to the editor, Colleen McKee said, “While we are in a drought crisis KwaDukuza municipality choose to ignore the constant flow of free water being used by the informal taxi rank to wash their taxis. Who is paying for all this water?”

The taxi conductors claim that the water used to wash the taxis is rain water that is collected from a drain next to the road. They extract the water using a bucket and a rope. This can take up to half an hour because the drain is not always full.

“If there is no rain water, we collect water from Shaka’s Head or get a water truck to deliver it to us, where we then have to collect it in buckets. It costs R5 a bucket. The taxi rank that we use is gravel. If we had to wash our taxis there then there would be mud. We work hard for water,” said one conductor.

In a previous article (‘M4 a free taxi wash bay?’, The North Courier website, August 5 2015), Semcorb Siza Water confirmed that the water being used to wash the taxis is, in fact, rain water.

“After rain there is a constant discharge from the roof of the reservoir. This rain water ends up in the drainage system and eventually in a natural water drain at the M4 robots near Engen,” said SSW managing director, Shyam Misra.

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