Taxi violence flares up again
Murders and shootings related to disputes in the minibus-taxi industry in the Carletonville area picked up again this week.
“It is so dangerous around here. We need taxis but we never know when we might be caught in the crossfire.”
These are the words of a commuter from the area, commenting on the week’s violence that flared up in the local minibus-taxi industry again.
In one of several incidents of violence related to the local minibus taxi industry, a taxi driver narrowly escaped death on Monday, 29 January.
The 30-year-old driver was waiting at the corner of Marula and Joe Slovo Streets in Khutsong Extension 5 at approximately 13:10. A white Toyota Corolla with an unknown driver stopped near him.
The stranger got out and fired several shots at the taxi driver. The taxi driver was hit in the chest and was rushed to Carletonville Hospital. The victim is a driver for the Carletonville United Taxi Association (Cuta).
The police are now investigating an attempted murder.
The incident occurred just hours before a 32-year-old driver for the Carletonville Local and Long Distance Taxi Association (CALLDTA) was murdered at the Carletonville Taxi Rank at 19:55.
The next taxi-violence related murder occurred less than a day later.
At approximately 05:00 on Tuesday, 30 January the 73-year-old Mr Lewis Petro Sharinga was going to pick up school children in his son’s minibus taxi. The son is also a member of CALLDTA.
He was waiting on the side of the road in the 70s of Khutsong Extension 5 when unknown men approached his taxi and started shooting at him.
Sharinga died at the scene from his injuries.
Yet another CALLDTA driver was almost killed at 19:50 on the same day. This driver (46) had just offloaded passengers from his white Toyota Quantum minibus at the main entrance of the Elijah Barayi mega housing complex.
Suddenly, a young African man with a light complexion jumped out of a blue car parked nearby. He started shooting at the taxi and fired several shots at the driver.
Luckily, the driver thought quickly, jumped from his vehicle and ran to the nearby housing units for help.
He managed to escape unscathed, and the police have opened an attempted murder case.
Another murder related to the local taxi industry happened on Wednesday, 31 January.
Three patrollers from CALLDTA stopped at the intersection of the road to East Driefontein from the P111 at approximately 20:50.
One of them had just got out of the vehicle to relieve himself when an unknown vehicle sped up to them in the dark.
The attackers in this vehicle started shooting at the patrollers, who sped off to avoid the fire. They went back to the site after the attackers had left and found that their colleague had died from four gunshot wounds to his chest.
