MEC disturbed by quality of sanitisers at Mams taxi rank
“the government is trying by all means to fight and keep everyone safe from the third wave of Covid-19 by distributing quality sanitisers for the taxi industry.”
“Stop buying cheap hand sanitiser with less than 70% alcohol content.”
This was the message Gauteng transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo had for taxi drivers and informal traders at the Denneboom taxi rank during a Covid-19 compliance visit on Wednesday morning.
In addition to inspecting Covid-19 rules and regulation compliance, the MEC also visited the rank to introduce the new leadership for the Mamelodi taxi association.
“The government is doing its best to fight and keep everyone safe from the third wave of Covid-19 by distributing quality sanitisers for the taxi industry,” he said.
“But the virus will continue spreading around the country and we will forever be stuck in level 4 lockdown if we continue using sanitisers with less than 70% alcohol.”
Mamabolo said the first step in fighting the pandemic was adhering to rules such as wearing masks, social distancing and sanitising hands at all times.
He also spoke with some of the commuters at the rank, checking whether drivers, informal traders and commuters were adhering to Covid-19 rules.
“I was disappointed to find that one of the informal traders here was serving her customers without a sanitiser for customers.”
The MEC organised sanitiser for the trader, but later discovered that the same trader was still serving people without it later on.
However, the MEC was disappointed when it found the same woman serving customers without the sanitiser.
“She said someone took it.
“That is very concerning because the informal traders interact with a lot of people every day. It is the responsibility of everyone to always stay safe, including the informal traders,” said Mamabolo.
Mamabolo said he was proud to introduce the new executive members of the Mamelodi taxi association after the association was placed under administration for a year.
He encouraged the new leadership to always be united and “remain solid” at all times.
“The taxi association must not allow people to crack their unity,” said Mamabolo.
He said there should be no illegal collection of money within the association and that they must always operate under a clean administration.
“The new leadership must look at expanding the business activities for themselves by getting better businesses that will bring more money to the association,” said Mamabolo.
Ben Maredi, of the Mamelodi taxi association, said he was proud to announce that “the people who tried to take away the business from us were chased away and everything is back to normal with the new leadership”.
Passenger Jerry Mathebula said queue marshals at the taxi rank were doing a good job by always making sure that they wore masks and sanitise hands before boarding.
He further said he was proud to see the MEC interacting with commuters and taxi drivers.
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