There’s still no end in sight to the current taxi strike in Cape Town.
This is as Santaco provincial leaders say there hasn’t been any positive progress on talks between them and the City of Cape Town.
In the meantime, a political bun fight erupted between the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance-led governments over the issue at the heart of the taxi industry’s unhappiness. The recent impounding of minibuses in the metro.
The Transport Ministry insists the City’s use of an amended traffic by-law to seize minibuses is irregular.
But the council claims it’s always been using existing national legislation.
Santaco provincial chairperson Mandla Hermanus said he cannot say whether minibus taxis will be back on the roads on Thursday.
When the taxi council decided to withdraw taxi operations in the Western Cape last week Thursday, the expectation was that the taxi stay away would end today.
Hermanus said a few issues still need to be resolved before going back on the roads.
“We have this threat that is hovering over our heads that when we go back to operations, 25 vehicles will be impounded for every bus or car that was stoned or damaged. So, we don’t want to send our operators into a lion’s den.”
He said they’ll only know the way forward after their meeting with Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga later on Wednesday afternoon.
