Political imperative to remove the cloud over Mbalula will be strong

An important high court judgment recently sent a rare puff of reviving oxygen into the stale fug of gloom and misery that currently is South Africans’ daily lot.

If not overturned on an appeal, a declaratory order awarded by Judge John Smith against Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and his Eastern Cape MEC counterpart may encourage our politicians to take their jobs more seriously.

The ruling is bad news, too, for the notoriously corrupt taxi associations that have been allowed to get away with violent campaigns to destroy their competitors. It’s also a reminder that the judiciary is perhaps the last institution that retains sufficient independence to curb a government rotten with criminality and largely indifferent to the nation.

The action was brought by bus operator Intercape, which has been at the sharp end of a seven-year campaign of violent intimidation by Eastern Cape taxi associations. The objective of the violence – which encompassed roadblocks, hijackings, no-go areas, stonings, shootings and murder – was simple.

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It was to erode Intercape’s capacity to compete with the taxi associations by demanding that they veto power over Intercape’s routes, ticket prices and the numbers of buses allowed to operate, as well as to extort protection fees to allow Intercape to operate without fear of attacks.

Similarly despicable was the behaviour of Mbalula and his then provincial sidekick, Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe.

When Intercape CEO Johann Ferreira asked them to use the provisions of the Act to protect his business, they first ignored him and then threatened to close down Intercape routes unless he did a deal with the taxi mafia. Despite 150 separate attacks on Intercape buses and staff, Mbalula and Tikana-Gxothiwe did nothing.

Without exception, every effort by Intercape and Ferreira to get the government to do what it is obligated to do, was ignored. Eventually, Mbalula deigned to attend a meeting where a “task force” was formed, but nothing came of it. Nor of a later “joint operational plan”. Nor of a “priority committee”.

In March this year, Ferreira was “told in no uncertain terms” at a meeting with Codeta, the Cape Organisation for Democratic Taxi Associations, that Intercape “had to pay to make the problem go away”. Continued intransigence on his part would trigger against Intercape buses and staff “a campaign involving every single taxi association” in the country.

Tikana-Gxothiwe didn’t bother to hide where her sympathies lay. She told Ferreira that the only thing to do was for him to “reach an agreement” with the taxi associations. If he failed to do so, she would bar Intercape from operating in certain areas.

Matters did not improve when Tikana-Gxothiwe was dumped in a provincial Cabinet reshuffle. Her successor, Xolile Nqatha, followed Mbalula’s example by not “bothering” to file answering affidavits to Intercape’s application.

ALSO READ: Mbalula must protect Intercape buses from attacks, court rules

The judge is forthright about Mbalula’s and his provincial equivalents’ failure to meet their obligations. He goes further, to say that they don’t understand these obligations and, in the case of Tikana-Gxothiwe, was willing to tolerate criminal violence.

Smith has ordered Mbalula and Nqatha, in consultation with the SA Police Service, as well as the national and provincial commissioners of police, to within 20 days develop an actionable plan to address the violence.

There has not yet been any word as to whether the state will appeal. It surely will. Whatever the legal merits of the state’s case, the political imperative to remove the cloud over Mbalula will be strong. After all, when a minister is found by a court to not understand his constitutional and statutory obligations, there should be only two alternatives. Overturn the finding on appeal, or sack the minister.