MBOMBELA- Violation of passengers’ right is one of the biggest challenges that needs to be addressed by the South African Passengers Organisation.
Speaking to Mpumalanga News the president of the organization Mr Veli Mathe indicated that they still have a long way to go when it comes to teach about passengers rights as this coming Sunday they will be giving passengers an opportunity to voice out their challenges, that they face when using public transport.
“This coming Sunday we will be interacting with passengers at Gedlembane,” said Mathe.
The Sunday gathering comes after the organization recently held a private meeting with Top Star Taxi Association Management in Nelspruit, where a number of issues regarding public transport were discussed.
“All along we were focusing on buses but this time around we feel that we need to do more and we decided to bring on board the taxi industry,” he said.
“Our aim is to see all our passengers and drivers respecting each other,”
This journalist interacted with different commuters at Hazyview Taxi Rank and they said different views regarding treatment they receiver from taxi drivers.
Ms Noma Sambo said “In most cases taxi drivers don’t respect us; they are rude for example if one complain about their speed they respond by saying “Üngatotenta clever wena la!”
Passengers are alleged that taxi drivers over speed during month ends and don’t give attention when passengers complain about anything.
One of the taxi drivers who spoke on condition of anonymity said “Some passengers are not respecting us, they have a bad attitude towards taxi drivers and calls us “Bomageza empompini,” “We are used to such insults although it’s not acceptable, it’s not cool at all but what can we say we need money to support our families,” he said.
