Taxi strike over as east chairperson ‘sacked’
This after the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) reached an amicable agreement with Mamelodi taxi drivers and owners on Tuesday afternoon.
Taxi operations resumed in Mamelodi after a strike, that led to a complete shutdown of routes, was called off.
This after the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) reached an amicable agreement with Mamelodi taxi drivers and owners on Tuesday afternoon.
“The situation is back to normal,” said Santaco regional spokesperson Mack Makata.
The strike stemmed from unhappiness that taxis affiliated to the Mamelodi taxi association (Mata) were given preferential treatment picking up passengers at the local rank.
“Operators wanted the Mata chairperson to step aside and he has been released from his duties.”
According to Makata an interim structure has put in place until a new chairperson would be elected after the lockdown.
So-called “queue marshals” were also disgruntled after their payments were reduced from R900 to R700.
“These issues were not brought to our attention in the meeting,” Makata said.
READ MORE: East commuters still without transport due to strike
The resumption of taxi operations has also led the Tshwane metro to reinstate A Re Yeng buses in Mamelodi on Wednesday.
“We are pleased to inform Mamelodi bus commuters that operations will resume on Wednesday,” said Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba.
Bokaba said the metro wished to apologise to commuters for any inconvenience caused.
Bus operations were suspended early on Tuesday morning after protesting members of a local taxi association attempted to hijack two of the metro’s buses.
“The Tshwane Rapid Transit (TRT) received a tip-off that there was a planned disruption to the A Re Yeng bus operations in Mamelodi on Tuesday,” said Bokaba.
“At around 04:00 the area around the BP Garage in Mamelodi East, near Solomon Mahlangu Road, was blockaded with rocks and debris. The area around Tsamaya (Old Putco Depot) was also blocked off.”
He said a precautionary decision was taken not to send buses to Mahube and Lusaka and rather start operating from Balebogeng.
“There was a Putco bus blocking the road which seemed to have been hijacked,” Bokaba said.
He said police recovered the bus at around 06:30 near the BP Garage taxi rank.
READ MORE: Taxi violence gang’ busted in east
“Most of the trips taking place between 04:30 and 06:30 were undisturbed [except for the Lusaka and Mahube areas] because of the threats.”
Bokaba said at about 06:34 there was an attempt to hijack two of the A Re Yeng buses, but police acted swiftly and defused the situation.
He said police then escorted all the buses out Mamelodi with the passengers on board.
“After this incident a decision was taken to suspend all operations to protect commuters, bus drivers as well as protecting the metro’s assets.”
Buses were redirected back to the Belle Ombre and Watloo bus depots.
Tshwane head administrator Mpho Nawa condemned the incident and complimented law enforcement officials for their swift action in foiling the attempted hijacking of the buses.
“The right to protest is an inalienable right enjoyed by all South Africans,” he said.
“However, it is unacceptable to hijack a bus transporting passengers en route to work to earn a living for their families.
“We are pleased to announce that all is well and operations will resume tomorrow uninterrupted,” Nawa said.
TRT CEO Sam Matebane labeled Tuesday’s incidents as “unfortunate”.
“Sanity has prevailed and operations will resume per normal schedule,” said Matebane.
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