Taxis could get a holding area
FOURWAYS – Ward 94 councillor David Foley wants the community to engage with him on finding solutions in the area.
Ward 94 councillor David Foley, recently met with JMPD representatives and Fourways stakeholders on 9 July to discuss the ongoing taxi issues and informal traders in Fourways.
The Fourways Review has been informed that the various stakeholders and the ward councillor are strongly considering opening a holding area to accommodate the taxis, while hawkers are to be formalised. The Fourways Review previously reported on the negotiations over issues of taxis, littering and hawkers in Fourways in the article Operation to address taxi issue in Fourways begins [Week ending 5 July].
According to Foley, Fourways has about 680 taxis. “We have a lot of taxis in Fourways – about 680 which is a lot of taxis to accommodate, so we are looking at finding the holding areas to accommodate these taxis but nothing has been confirmed as of yet. I also want to get the residents to weigh in on this matter and hear what they think.
“We will also engage the taxi associations to ensure that we know who they have a conflict with so that we accommodate everyone and now we shall also look for land in the Region A and try to find out if it’s national land or municipality land so we can know who to approach.”
Foley also revealed that hawkers in the area will be considered as well. “At the same time we need to keep the area clean, so with the hawkers, we will try formalise them and ensure that they have stalls, which will be more manageable and safe because trading on the streets subjects them to JMPD officials.”
The councillor also emphasised the importance of involving the community in the process. “I do not want to exclude the community in this process, I want them to come with suggestions as well and have a multi-engagement so that we can get it right.”
Head of marketing at Accelerate Property Fund, Zoé van Onselen said, “This is an ongoing discussion and, at the moment, no commitments have been made, but we came up with a few suggestions. We also feel like we need to work with the taxi associations to get buy-in.”
The city of Joburg MMC for Public Safety, Michael Sun also weighed in on the matter. “At the moment, I want to urge all the stakeholders in the area that we as government want to facilitate the platform for solutions to be found,” he said.
Sun also confirmed that law enforcement will continue in Fourways. “It is very important that we continue with our by-law enforcement and we also want to see stakeholders, taxi associations, hawkers and pedestrians operate in harmony and respect each other’s rights,” he concluded.
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