Taxi drivers march against E-tolls

Vusi Mona, spokesperson for Sanral, says they are aware that there are taxi operators who have not as yet received their operating licenses from the relevant transport authorities.

As a result, the system does not recognise their vehicles as exempt and they are being billed.

“As an interim measure, we have asked the taxi associations to give us lists of their members’ vehicles, with all the necessary documentation, so that they can be loaded on to the system and can be identified as exempt vehicles.

“Those that have been billed already will receive a credit note, and will not be held liable for the outstanding amounts. This is the first phase of helping to resolve the problem,” says Mona.

“The second phase would commence once the processing of operating licenses has been completed. At that stage, taxi operators will be expected to submit their operating licenses to Sanral for permanent exemption.

“The interim measure has also been discussed with the South African National Taxi Council – which has agreed to furnish Sanral with a list of their members’ vehicles whose permits are still outstanding.

“Correspondence about the submission of a similar list by the NTA has been sent to the association.”

Mona says that Sanral is not responsible for the issuing of taxi operating licenses, but is prepared to help with an interim solution while the permits backlog was being resolved.

Currently, there are approximately 46 000 exempt taxis that are already on the system.