Western Cape Transport MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela warned of a possible closure of taxi ranks and routes in the province, if the violence and shooting incidents persists.
Madikizela met with representatives from two
groups, namely Cape Amalgamated Taxi Associations (CATA) and Congress of
Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta) ‘’to engage both sets of leaders on the
current taxi related violence and murders that involve their members and
affiliates.’’
The transport MEC claims taxi associations wants
to vie for control over taxi routes and ranks throughout the Western Cape,
including current ‘hotspots’ in Bellville, Mbekweni, Houtbay, Masiphumelele,
Ceres and other areas.
In recent months, there has been a surge in
violence linked to competition over routes.
According to the MEC, there were 56
taxi-related murders and 32 attempted murders since the start of the year.
‘’SAPS is making good progress with
investigations into these cases and others with 106 arrests over the last 3
years and 54 cases currently on the Court rolls.’’
CATA and Codeta leaders expressed their
concerns and complaints along with their own proposals towards the resolution
of specific disputes. Madikizela said his department and the affiliates had a
lot of similarities
‘’…from
which I and my officials were able to extract a number of common threads that
have been used to craft a set of resolutions that were sent to both parties and
to affected municipalities for their inputs. The draft resolutions include a
number of ‘non-negotiables’ which I tabled at the start of each of the two
meetings.’’
Done By: Mitchum George
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