Revenge on taxis: mission possible

Taxis are regarded as a scourge by most motorists owing to the drivers’ illegal behaviour and contempt for the law and fellow road users.

A good example is the illegal taxi rank opposite Westgate Shopping Centre (Taxis’ way or the highway – 28 June) that refuse to stop operating despite the involvement of everyone from the Councillor for the Ward (85) Carl Mann to disgruntled business owners.

Mann now says that he might have found a solution to the problem – in Cape Town.

According to Mann, 18 minibus taxi drivers have been arrested by Cape Town’s Highway Ghost Squad unit on the N2 since June 10 for reckless and negligent driving.

All but three of those arrested had outstanding warrants of arrest.

The Highway Ghost Squad is a specialist unit operating in unmarked cars that patrol the city’s freeways during peak hours in an effort to clamp down on serious traffic violations, among them cutting in after passing and reckless and negligent driving. The hotspots are identified by complaints received from the public.

JP Smith, the Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security in Cape Town, who accompanied the unit on one of their operations, said the taxi drivers had been “extremely arrogant” when stopped by the Ghost Squad but when they realised that they would be taken into custody, “their attitudes changed”.

Instead of just ticketing the drivers for reckless driving, the City of Cape Town is escalating the campaign and also checking on outstanding fines.
Mann now wants to implement a similar unit in the City of Joburg.

“Sadly, reckless taxi drivers in the ward have become an epidemic. As Councillor I take this problem very seriously and I am working with the City and JMPD to better enforce traffic by-laws as well as to set up regular trapping on trouble spots. Unfortunately it is not enough, therefore I will be consulting my colleagues in Council and call for a motion in the City Council for similar action in Johannesburg,” says Mann.