BARBERTON – In a bizarre occurrence,the offices for the Barberton Taxi Association were set alight allegedly by unknown people. This comes amidst claims by the association that everything is back to normal in the industry since they had elected a new leadership.
The association believes that taxi owners who are operating illegally in the industry, are behind this incident as it has been revealed that a cupboard where the permits were kept in the office, was burnt, but there were no permits.
Speaking to Mpumalanga News, additional member of the association, Mr Moses Simelane said: “When we arrived in the office, we discovered that it had been burnt down and we don’t know who set the office alight, but we suspect that those who are operating illegally are involved since they are fighting us concerning the bogus taxis that are operating illegally on the local routes.“
He added that even though they have tried to establish Mapoga, which was founded by local taxi drivers responsible for monitoring the illegal taxis that are giving them sleepless nights.
Magagula went on and said: “The legal operators are intimidating our people, while they are trying to assist us, we have tried to engage the law enforcement, but it’s not helping us since they are failing to act on this matter,“ he concluded.
This incident happened even after the MEC of safety, security and community liaison, Mr Vusi Shongwe not so long ago he called upon taxi industry to unite after he visited the Barberton association and Top Star Taxi Association based in Nelspruit and interacted with taxi drivers and taxi owners.
