A meeting was held between the Gauteng Department of Community Safety, Randburg Police and taxi drivers, at the Randburg Taxi Rank on 17 October. The meeting was part of an awareness campaign by the department to educate drivers about the importance of adhering to the rules of the road, and hear taxi drivers’ complaints.
“Some of your cars are unroadworthy,” said the department’s principal provincial officer Fikile Banda. She, the department’s assistant director Delisiwe Mabena and Randburg Police Sector 1 manager Constable Vincent Hlungwani told drivers to comply to various traffic safety requirements. These involved tire pressure, overloaded vehicles, vehicles being too old or unmaintained, and vehicle permits not being found on inspection.
When the drivers were told that they must stand up to vehicle owners when vehicles are unroadworthy, they all laughed. The drivers said that they fear owners will fire them if they demand repairs. They continued that they understand that the law must be adhered to, but the problem of unroadworthy vehicles lies with the owners’ unwillingness to maintain them.
The drivers also questioned why traffic officers pull them over, and after seeing that there is nothing wrong with their taxis, still ask for a bribe. Furthermore, they accused traffic officers of stealing their licence disks. However, Banda explained that licence disks are only taken when vehicles are unroadworthy, and taxi drivers must then follow road traffic officials to the licence testing station to have their vehicles checked. October is Transport Month in South Africa.
Details: Randburg Taxi Rank 071 440 1512; Gauteng Department of Community Safety 011 689 3600;
Randburg Police Station 011 449 9000.
