SANTACO confirmed that there is no strike planned on Monday by the industry

SANTACO confirmed that there is no strike planned on Monday by the industry. This comes after messages on social media are circulating that the taxi association is planning to again downtool.

Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town said it had impounded fourteen taxis over the weekend - eight taxis on Friday and six taxis on Saturday.

Mayco member for safety and security, JP Smith, said this was done in compliance with the agreement with SANTACO.

‘’Only one was contrary to the agreement with SANTACO (for significant overloading - 4 passengers more than the act permits) and this vehicle was released because it hadn't been processed yet,’’ said Smith.

‘’The other taxis were impounded for the serious offences as agreed upon with SANTACO and these are impoundments under the NLTA for (a) vehicles driving without an operating license, or (b) on the incorrect route, or (c) without a drivers license or PDP, or (d) which are not roadworthy,’’ added Smith.

On Monday, a temporary 14-day taxi task team will be meeting to discuss the “new regulations” on how taxis will operate in the Western Cape.

‘’The Taxi Task Team will further define a list of additional major offences in terms of which vehicles will be impounded and define less serious offences for which we will continue to issue fines,’’ said JP Smith, Mayco member for safety and security.

‘’No one is above the law and while the SOP is still being developed, we cannot allow any road users to do as they please. We also cannot allow leadership in SANTACO to misrepresent the facts of the agreement to taxi owners or drivers (e.g. by telling them that no vehicles may be impounded as was done during this past weekend) as this creates the conditions for confrontation on the streets when officers implement the exact agreement SANTACO accepted last week,’’ he added.

 

Done By: Alungile Njemla