Benoni residents protest over new taxi rule

The deputy chair of the Benoni Taxi Association, Edna Dlamini, says residents of Benoni are unhappy because the taxis are no longer touting, or picking up passengers on the road, in an effort to combat crimes that were on the rise.

Disgruntled community members took to the streets yesterday morning in Etwatwa, burning tyres and chanting.

Several road closures

Several road closures were seen leading up to Etwatwa taxi rank, covered in rocks and stones.

The community’s plea is to have taxis go back to touting and enter the community.

Touting is when taxis go on roads in the community, picking up people close to their homes. The end of this practice means people need to go to a taxi rank to get a taxi.

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Thabiso Mofokeng, who was among the protesters, said the protest was the second one in a few weeks because when they tried engaging the association, they were ignored.

“The real reason taxis want to stop touting is because they want to keep all the money at the ranks, because drivers would make extra money by going inside the communities.”

He said even private taxis were no longer allowed to tout in the area, which hurt their pockets. He disputed the reason the association gave about the crime saying, “they are using it as an excuse”.

Walking long distances to rank

Another protester, Nkosi Nkabinde, said: “We believe that the crime was less when they were touting because now that they have stopped our mothers have to walk long distances going to the taxi rank and they are vulnerable to crime in the area.

“We were forced to take to the streets because we wrote a memorandum of demands to the association and they simply ignored it. What other options do we have because they don’t engage us?”

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Some of the demands listed in a memorandum dated 29 July included that the routes were complicated since there are specific areas to catch those taxis.

Some routes had times for operations and they would pay two or three times before reaching their destination.

Dlamini said the association did not receive the memorandum.

South African Police Service spokesperson Colonel Noxolo Kweza said the association needed to provide proof of cases alleged to have been turned down by the police.