Cape Argus E-dition

Commuters left stranded

BULELWA PAYI bulelwa.payi@inl.co.za

DESPITE several attempts to end the ongoing taxi conflict between two warring organisations, no agreement has been reached while commuters are left stranded.

The taxi violence also led to renewed calls for the regulation of the industry.

The latest impasse has lasted for close to a month and left thousands of people unable to get to work, school or access critical health services.

The Congress Of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta) resumed operations on its routes from Thursday this week after it appealed for police protection. The Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) said it would meet yesterday to look into the possibility of returning to operations.

Transport MEC Daylin Mitchell on Monday closed the disputed B97 route between Bellville and Mbekweni, Paarl, for two months. An arbitration process was under way on Monday.

This week United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa and trade union leader Zwelinzima Vavi submitted a set of recommendations to Mitchell and Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula in a bid to end the conflict.

“I have a sense that the agreement is unlikely to receive enthusiastic support from national government for political reasons,” Vavi said.

He added that it was up to the two taxi bodies to ensure that the proposed agreement worked.

Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) provincial chairperson Malvern de Bruyn said the trade union federation met the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industries to avert job losses.

“We received concerns from workers across several sectors that employers wanted to take disciplinary action against them for either arriving late at work or not showing up as a result of the taxi conflict.

“We are facing a crisis and our economy cannot afford job losses again.

“The taxi industry also supplies scholar transport services so the learners were also affected.

“The industry needs to be regulated nationally,” De Bruyn said.

Senior researcher at the University of Fort Hare, Dr Siyabulela Fobosi, believed the taxi industry needed to be formalised and integrated into the national public transport strategy.

The government, which had the responsibility to provide public transport, relied on the minibus taxi industry which was basically informal, Fobosi said.

“The taxi violence and the non-operation of taxis are having a negative effect on the economic performance of the City of Cape Town. Urban mobility is an important element in the public transport sector,” Fobosi said.

He called on the provincial government to commission a full analysis of the taxi violence within the industry and a “decisive provincial plan” should be taken to address the issues in the industry.

While the impact on the city’s economy could not be quantified, economist Dawie Roodt said it was enormous and the damage caused would “linger on for a while”.

“It could amount to a close to R500 million loss in production in the month depending on how many taxis there are,” Roodt said.

He said the real damage was to those who depended on minibus taxi services.

“For every learner who missed school as a result of the taxi conflict the impact is enormous as it could have a detrimental effect on their performance,” said Roodt.

Some organisations and institutions felt the brunt of the taxi violence.

The provincial department of health noted that on July 20 some health workers in Cape Town could not get to work or arrived late.

“The vaccination teams were affected, which saw 27 000 vaccines administered, 3 000 less than the target of 30 000 a day,” the department said, but added that operations had returned to normal.

Food relief deliveries by the organisations affiliated to the Western Cape Food Forum were disrupted.

The forum was facilitated by the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership (EDP) last year in response to the need for coordinated food relief as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

EDP operations executive Gill Cullinan said a recent survey by the organisation among 25 organisations of the forum indicated that 92% of them had had their operations affected as their employees or colleagues struggled to get to work.

Cullinan said the organisations noted an increase in the number of people requiring food assistance as a result of job losses.

“Many also report a loss in funding, either because operations were disrupted and they were not able to report on the work, or because future projects had to be put on hold.

“Furthermore, there is generalised confusion about whose responsibility it is to address this transport crisis and a real sense of urgency for some sort of response,” said Cullinan.

Mbalula was expected to meet taxi industry stakeholders this weekend to “get an update on arbitration, route closure and security concerns”.

METRO

en-za

2021-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

http://capeargus.pressreader.com/article/281625308344678

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