According to the newly-elected chairman of the Springs Taxi Association (STA) Veli Mbatha, the main reason behind the idea of stickers is to curb crime in the local taxi industry.
“Police proposed to stop the operation of these taxis, we then requested that we enlarge the size of the sticker.” The chairman adds that three notices about the closing date being in December were published in the African Reporter.
Getting a sticker cost R500 last year, those who missed the deadline have to pay R1 100 which includes penalties and January subscription.
However, not everyone is happy with the decisions taken by STA.
On the 15th four+one members met at Thema Road to elect their executive. It was during this meeting that it is alleged those with stickers were stopped and their stickers were removed.
Elected on the day, chairman Bafana Mazibuko says they are not against the use of stickers. “We are unhappy with the way we were just told without being consulted and getting our views.”
Bafana says they wanted to know how these stickers would assist them. He also said that the STA only used local media to communicate with them and denied that they had removed anyone’s sticker.
The two sides met for a meeting on Sunday. While STA described the meeting as unsuccessful because “there was no order”, four+one chairman sang a different tune: “the day was a success because they introduced themselves formally to us for the first time”.
