Anarchy! - The Star

2006/10/28

Taxi drivers and owners cause chaos in streets of Gauteng
After causing disruption and pandemonium across Gauteng yesterday, unrepentant taxi operators have vowed that blood will flow in the country’s streets if the government insists on pursuing its taxi recapitalisation programme - which was to be officially launched today.
Peter Rakavha and Elvis Mgidi, of Pretoria’s largest taxi association, said that if the government insisted on pushing the programme through, blood will flow on the country’s streets.
Another taxi operator vowed that they would stop the 2010 World Cup: There will be riots like this country has never seen before. With taxis forming barricades on highways yesterday, anger erupted as police fired teargas and rubber bullets at protesters, who in turn attacked commuters and motorists -on occasion in full view of watching police and traffic officials supposedly monitoring the situation.
Nearly 10 000 taxi drivers and owners blocked a number of major roads and forced thousands to take alternative routes, which led to huge traffic jams across the province.
The disruption led to millions of Rands in lost business and provided a sombre warning of the power of a comparatively small group of individuals to cause chaos.
The protesters, led by National Taxi Alliance (NTA) members, swarmed through Pretoria’s central business district to the Union Buildings, where they handed over a memorandum to Transport Minister Jeff Radebe. They demanded either more money for the scrapping of their old vehicles or the total scrapping of the recapitalisation process.
The taxi drivers showed no fear of the police monitoring the march route, when they got out of their vehicles and walked around in between cars, brandishing sjamboks and knobkerries.
At some points along the way, they controlled traffic by forcing motorists to clear the path for fellow taxi drivers who were stuck further behind in traffic.
Some frustrated motorists complained of delays of up to four hours. One motorist, Mel van Niekerk, said: “This is not on. I am not against them striking but they cannot just pull over in the middle of the highway and walk around like this. They are trying to get their message across to the government at our expense.” Protesters also blockaded emergency assistance vehicles on several occasions.
ER24s Werner Vermaak said two ER24 ambulances were stranded in central Pretoria by taxi drivers who formed a gridlock around the emergency vehicles.
On the N1, at the Samrand offramp near Centurion, an ambulance responding to an accident was forced to stop when taxis blocked its path.
Rouxlé van Molendorff, chief operations officer at Europ Assistance SA, who oversees the day-today running of four major emergency call centres, told the Saturday Star that stranded commuters flooded emergency lines to ask how they could get out of traffic jams, or where they could find public transport.
The demonstration also led to several taxis and buses being stoned and set alight, and saw three taxi drivers and two policemen being injured in running clashes.
Phumla Sekhonyane, spokesperson for Gauteng Safety and Liaison MEC Firoz Cachalia, said commuters in Alberton, Pretoria and Diepsloot had been angry that there were no taxis and demanded that the government provide them with buses.
They put stones in the middle of the road and said they should be provided with buses so that they could go to work. On the whole, the police were able to handle the strike, she added.
Pretoria police spokesperson Inspector Anton Breedt confirmed shooting incidents in Diepsloot in the morning, after taxi drivers blocked roads with burning tyres and stones when police tried to disperse the crowds.
He said three taxi drivers were assaulted in Paul Kruger Street, D F Malan Drive and at the N4 tollgate near Bronkhorstspruit, while a police inspector and a superintendent were stoned while trying to rescue a taxi driver who was being dragged from his vehicle.
Breedt said several taxis were attacked in Mamelodi, and on the corner of Potgieter and Church and Van der Walt and Vermeulen streets in Pretoria.
Late yesterday afternoon, several taxi drivers stopped their vehicles in the middle of the Ml highway near the Corlett Drive, Johannesburg, exit.
Joburg SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Sanku Tsunke said police had opened dockets against several taxi associations, but could not specify yesterday which ones.
Collen Msibi, spokesperson for the National Department of Transport, said last night that despite threats of bloodshed, taxi recapitalisation is on an irreversible path.