DA campaign puts spotlight on taxi deaths
ALEXANDRA - DA's campaign sends Alex an anti-taxi violence message.
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) local government election campaign descended on Alex this week with an added message of condemning taxi-related violence and the unwarranted killings of taxi owners, drivers and innocent passengers.
This after countless deaths were reported at malls, taxi ranks and on the roads making taxi rides, which the public relies on daily to get to work and for other trips, risky.
Campaign leader and DA’s Joburg Mayoral Candidate Herman Mashaba said the carnage ought to be condemned in the strongest terms, and attributed the problem to government and the Joburg City Council, saying they failed to enforce bylaws. In addition, he said the problem was also caused by alleged corruption in the Metro police force, which he said benefited from the seemingly protracted taxi wars.
Mashaba said the deaths were symptomatic of a government that didn’t listen, showed no interest in the welfare of the public or to resolve the problem in the taxi industry through negotiations. “Two more people in the industry were killed last weekend, seven in the past two months and 10 members of the public were injured in the same period,” he said while including those killed at the opening of the new Mall of Africa in Midrand last month.
Mashaba said if he won the mayoral seat in the 3 August municipal elections, he would engage with residents and all stakeholders, including the taxi industry, to resolve the problems through negotiations, as they were crucial to public transport and the economy. “I will set up a task team of government and [members of] the taxi industry to deal with taxi violence and make the transport system seamless and integrated with taxi ranks.”
Mashaba also accused the City of alleged corruption which he said amounted to R4.2 million and which the Auditor General classified as fruitless and wasteful expenditure the City should account for. “The money could have been used productively to create jobs, develop essential infrastructure, housing and for electricity and water provision.”
He further accused the City of spending R14 million advertising its administrative work in newspapers. Mashaba said the money could have gone towards job creation at a time when 66 000 residents joined the unemployed ranks.
Mashaba also revealed that his family recently started the Vilankulu Scholarship Foundation with R500 000 in bursaries for Alex’s needy children. He appealed to other businesses to contribute to the fund to support education in the township. The foundation is named after Jappi Vilankulu who was killed by the apartheid police in the June 1976 students riots.
