The chairperson of the Concerned Committee of Taxi Operators says 19 taxis are operating without permits.
Zwelibanzi May says they conducted their own intensive search operation two weeks ago. Unfortunately, they had to close off the town rank and the road, leaving their commuters stranded for four hours. ‘We would like to apologise to the public for that but we did it for the safety of our passengers’ he said. He says the operations were also conducted in Ext. 7, Ext. 11 and Kanana.
May explained that being transported in a taxi without a permit or operating licence leads to unroadworthy taxis, ultimately, endangering the lives of the passengers. ‘In the event of an accident, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) won’t pay anything if the taxi had no permit to drive on the road or passenger liability cover. We want to root out those illegal taxis in the town, townships and the extensions,’ he said.
May says there are also taxis with fraudulent permits and others that share one permit among two or three taxis. ‘Some do not have permits to allow them to drive on certain routes,’ he said.
May says they have held countless meetings with the Department of Community Safety to address this issue.
Last Monday, the traffic officials also conducted a search operation on the roads near the taxi rank.
Malcolm Grimbeek, the acting director of the community safety in J.B. Marks local municipality confirmed that the operations are taking place and that the perpetrators are being booked.
The information is privileged and cannot be divulged at this stage,’ he said.
May says the Concerned Committee of Taxi Operators is unhappy about the traffic officials’ search operation because they do not impound the illegal taxis and let the driver off the hook.
