Taxi industry relief fund “safe”

The money allocated to a relief fund to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak of the pandemic on the taxi industry was reportedly still in safe hands, the transport department said earlier this week.

“Their billion rand is safe,” transport minister Fikile Mbalula said.

Mbalula said this while he responding to a question about when taxi operators would be paid the money following the directive he issued about the said fund in March.

“We’re going to make a proclamation in the next coming weeks,” he said.

“But their money is safe – R1,3-billion,” he said.

The Government Gazette directive about the taxi relief fund, signed by Mbalula on 30 March 2021, was made under Section 27 (2) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act No.67 of 2002).

In the gazette, he explained his department had secured a once-off “ex gratia” relief fund to assist taxi operators to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

“The relief scheme is not intended to compensate for loss of income.”

However, there were a number of criterion which taxi operators and owners had to meet to benefit from the relief fund.

A year ago, in June 2020, Mbalula announced that R1,135-billion was allocated for the taxi industry to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the sector which was faced with multiple restrictions related to the number of passengers they could transport.

At the time of making the announcement, he said it had not been easy to reach an agreement about the relief support as it involved extensive lobbying and convincing of the relevant authorities about the importance of the fund.

A few months later, in November 2020, the National Taxi Alliance, in Pretoria, embarked on a strike to the Union Buildings demanding that the relief funds be released.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram