Taxi rivalry heats up

POLOKWANE – Three taxi associations in the city held a meeting with the department of transport, safety and liaison and the South African Police Service (SAPS) yesterday to reach a mutual agreement to end the recent taxi rivalry, which resulted in a shooting incident last Thursday afternoon.

The incident happened at the R81 traffic light near Mall of the North, where Ben Nonyana, a member of the Mankweng Taxi Association was shot and injured.

According to a family friend, Nonyana was recovering well.

An eyewitness who spoke to Review on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, said he saw how the men beat one taxi driver.

“We were on our way to the mall when we saw a group of men attack a man who was sitting in the driver’s side of a light blue taxi. We were so shocked, no one deserves that kind of beating. When we arrived at the mall, we heard a gun shot, and we knew that the shot came from where the man was being beaten. When we left the mall we saw a lot of taxis parked along the road and traffic was badly congested from the mall past Thornhill all the way back into Veldspaat Street past Nando’s,” the eyewitness said.

Polokwane police spokesperson, Capt Ntobeng Phala, confirmed that a case of attempted murder was being investigated and that no arrests had been made yet.

Secretary of the Seshego Taxi Association, Sethosa Tipe, claimed that the Mankweng taxi drivers disregarded their ranking permits by loading passengers outside their route.

“The Mankweng guys are supposed to transport commuters from Mankweng to Polokwane and back.

“We transport people from Mall of the North to town and from Indian Centre to Mall of the North, but now the guys from Mankweng stop along the road and pick up people from the mall and transport them to town. They also charge the people less than what we charge at the rank. This is not acceptable,” Tipe said.

Public relations officer for the Mankweng Taxi Association, Frans Kgasago, confirmed that a certain individual who was suspended from the Mankweng Taxi Association stopped and parked at an intersection near the mall to collect commuters along the road.

“The guys from the Seshego Taxi Association found out about this and they started pulling over our guys on Thursday.

“At about 15:00, taxi drivers from Mankweng and Seshego got into a fight. One of our members, Ben Nonyana, tried to stop the fight and during this process a gun shot was fired and he was injured. We do not know who fired the shot. We are very disappointed that this happened because we would have appreciated it if the Seshego Taxi Association management rather contacted us with this problem instead of the situation getting out of hand like it did,” Kgasago said.

He added that the Flora Park, Seshego and Mankweng Taxi Associations met with SAPS at the Polokwane police station on Thursday to discuss challenges and a temporary agreement was made during this meeting.

“Seshego will transport commuters from the mall to Polokwane and from Indian Centre to the mall. We will transport commuters from Mankweng to Polokwane and from Polokwane to Mankweng, but as per our license we will also be able to pick up people along the road,” Kgasago said.

Meanwhile, the DA claimed that the premier, Stanley Mathabatha and the MEC for transport, safety and liaison, Mapula Mokaba-Phukwana were aware of the rivalry between the taxi associations, but failed to intervene, which resulted in Thursday’s incident.

DA provincial spokesperson on transport, Katlego Phala, said: “the DA has written to the premier on many previous occasions calling for his intervention, but he ignored the calls and has done nothing to secure the commuters and the taxi operators who use the Mankweng taxi rank.

“The premier must be held accountable for the ongoing tension that is mounting between Mankweng taxi association factions”. (Read the full statement)

Spokesperson for the premier, Kenneth Mathivha, said Mokaba-Phukwana held several meetings with different stakeholders in the province with regard to taxi and transport issues.

“It is the premier’s belief that such engagements are yielding fruit. The shooting and blockade is unfortunate and we sympathise with those who were injured,” Mathivha said.

Spokesperson for the department of transport, safety and liaison, Kagiso Mootane, could not give comment on the matter by the time of going to print.

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