What taxis are doing is wrong, but for the right reasons

When Finance Minister Tito Mboweni invoked the Book of Matthew in delivering his budget, it served as confirmation of the rather strange times the pandemic has ushered in: “We are faced, as a nation with a choice between two gates…the wide gate is a passive country that lets circumstances overwhelm it … it opens to a path to bankruptcy.”

In attempting to chart SA’s path to financial redemption, his turning to biblical guidance is a sign desperation is creeping in. But part of that desperation is due to government’s copy and paste approach to the lockdown.

The stand-off between the taxi industry and government, which has seen the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) threatening to defy the current social distancing regulations by loading their minibus taxis to capacity could have been really avoided if part of the planning for the pandemic had taken cognisance of the fact that Western lockdown solutions could not be applied directly to an African setting.

It was right at the beginning of the lockdown that the finance minister should have been planning to avoid the country’s approach towards the wide gate, not only now.

The much-maligned taxi industry will get what it always gets from public opinion: condemnation. “This industry is a law unto itself” is the theme when it comes to the public.

But in this case, the industry is actually reflecting the economic pain being felt by the majority. Their chosen method of protest must be condemned because it endangers the lives of millions simply to get their message across to government, but the reasons for their action must be addressed to avoid the country slipping further into chaos during the pandemic.

When the hard lockdown was put in place, the president and finance minister should have been bold enough to put a freeze on all debt repayments for all consumers whose earnings have been affected.

The choice should never have been left to creditors to make arrangements how they see fit. Just like it was made illegal to evict tenants during the lockdown, it should have been declared that all payments due to creditors from people like taxi operators were frozen.

It might seem like the taxi industry is greedily fighting to get R5 billion instead of the R1.2 billion relief grant the government is offering, but the underlying reason is that the majority of the taxis are financed. The economic hardship resulting from the pandemic lockdown means operators risk losing their vehicles.

That is the exact same position millions of self-employed South Africans find themselves in. The bills did not suddenly disappear during the lockdown: the bond repayments, the car repayments and the loan repayments just kept piling up and as the economy opens up, creditors are going after what is legally theirs.

Many South Africans in the same position as taxi operators would probably force government’s hand if they had the same bargaining power: the unique position of transporting the majority of South Africans to work. SA can choose to be united in condemning the deliberate endangerment of people’s lives through defying social distancing, but pretending that the reasons for this action is simply greed is unfair.

Mboweni warns of the wider gate leading to overwhelming debt (hell). For the taxi industry and many others, hell is already here with the threat of asset repossession.

Sydney Majoko.

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