Passengers are urinating on the walls of the Randburg taxi rank.

Read more: Fines failing to stop taxi rank’s urinating problem

This is in full view of warning signs, security personnel, and working toilets, and the rank’s own fines are failing to stop them.

Lebo Makwe, treasurer at the rank, says the problem has persisted for a long time and is now costing the rank business. The smell of urine, she warns, is turning customers away. “They are causing it, and then they don’t want to come anymore.”

The rank has two functioning toilets and has painted warnings on the walls where offenders most often strike. A R500 fine is in place for anyone caught urinating in public, but collecting it is another matter entirely. “You find that a particular person doesn’t have money. So, sometimes you end up accepting R100, or sometimes you just let it go.”

Also read: Digital access boosted at Randburg Taxi Rank

Security guards have been stationed to deter offenders, and police have been called in, but Makwe says law enforcement response times have repeatedly undermined those efforts, forcing the rank to rely on its own rules.

Makwe is clear about who the main offenders are. Drivers, he says, know better. They face immediate consequences if caught. It is passengers who are the problem, many of whom claim not to know where the toilets are, despite visible signage. “The person is just lazy to go there.”

With fines going uncollected and outside help unreliable, the rank is struggling to find a lasting solution to a problem that is both a health concern and a threat to its reputation.

Follow us on our Whatsapp channel, Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok for the latest updates and inspiration!