Taxi drivers declare war on electricity protesters
BOIPATONG.- Taxi drivers declared war against protestors in Boipatong last week.
For a month to date, the angry community have been barricading entrances of Boipatong in protest over electricity cut-offs.
This time around, the protesters decided to block all entrances to prevent taxis from commuting in and out of Boipatong, and this action made the taxi drivers angry.
The taxi drivers say the stones and other objects the protesters used to block the roads damage their taxis. Majority of drivers, who are also owners of the taxis, said that they have reported the situation to their taxi association.
“This is too much now, every week there is a protest in the area. We raised our concerns with our association. We don’t want to be seen fighting against our community, but these are criminal acts.
People in this area complain of crime due to the same people who claim to be fighting for electricity. Look, some of us are part of the affected community and we don’t condone what is happening. We want to plead with the Boipatong community to assist us because it will get ugly when we have to confront each other. We will support them, but they must do this in the right way,” said the taxi owners.
Vaalweekblad has been following this story for more than a month now where the residents block roads in demand of electricity.
They have apparently asked for meetings with local authorities to no avail.
The Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) has, however, in many instances, warned community members not to overload the power grid as this causes transformers to explode, leading to electricity cut-offs for longer periods.
