Govt says ‘very reasonable offer on the table’ to end taxi strike

Western Cape premier Alan Winde says the provincial government and the City of Cape Town have put a “very reasonable offer on the table” to end the taxi strike.

The premier and City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis met with the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in the Western Cape on Thursday afternoon in order to come to a resolution to put the week-long strike to bed.

The protest has been marred by violence, with a number of Golden Arrow buses being torched while several incidents of looting and stone throwing were reported.

The absence of taxi services in Cape Town has also affected schools and health services.

‘Very considerate’ proposal

Speaking to the media following Thursday’s meeting, Winde said he could not go into details of the offer to Santaco.

“So we can’t really say too much [or] more than that right now,” the premier said.

City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said he had hoped the parties would have had an agreement following their meeting today.

Hill-Lewis said the proposal was “very considerate” and indicated that Santaco officials had pledged to take the offer back to their team in Bellville.

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“Hopefully, with any luck we will have an agreement soon. Our first consideration in making the proposals is, and will always be, the safety of our commuters in this city – and this province for the premier – and with our minds on how we can keep commuters and people who use taxis and other road users safe and make our roads safer at all times.

“So our proposals are in that regard. And we sincerely hope that Santaco will now be mature, accept a reasonable proposal and end this strike in the interest to get back to some normalcy in the city and province,” the mayor told reporters.

Initial meetings between the parties took place last week, but temporarily collapsed with Hill-Lewis accusing Santaco of making entirely new demands despite “constructive proposals” being agreed to at first.

📢 Update following engagements with the taxi association – Thursday, 10 August 2023. pic.twitter.com/WB6DvMLAKM

— Premier Alan Winde (@alanwinde) August 10, 2023

The taxi stayaway continued into Thursday following a meeting between Santaco and Transport Minister, Sindi Chikunga, who insists the City of Cape Town must release all the impounded taxis.

Santaco indicated on Wednesday night that it would seek a court interdict to compel the city to release its taxis, and stop the city from impounding any vehicle until the issue was resolved.

Cabinet briefing on taxi strike

Earlier in the day, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said Cabinet condemned the “violence and anarchy” after it was briefed about the taxi strike.

“Cabinet has called on Santaco to ensure that its protest action is peaceful and does not interfere with the rights of others. In this regard, we have noted that there were no violent incidents in the last 48 hours,” she said in media briefing on Thursday.

Ntshavheni, however, said the police and other law enforcement agencies have been directed to ensure the violent situation was under control to allow residents safe movement to school, work and their normal daily activities.

READ MORE: Taxi bosses force drivers to ignore rules, analysts say

She indicated that Cabinet had also instructed Chikunga to look at the by-laws used by the City of Cape Town and whether the legislation were in line with national laws.

If they were contradictory to national laws they should be removed.

Hill-Lewis has insisted that both the National Land Transport Act empowered authorities in Cape Town to impound vehicles.

But this was disputed by Chikunga, with the minister saying the city introduced sanctions which didn’t exist.