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Members of the LTT-Musina Taxi Association and Makhado Long Distance Taxi Association (MALTA) marched to the offices of the Limpopo MEC for Transport and Community Safety and the Premier to hand over a memorandum with grievances regarding the ongoing war between taxi associations operating on the same route. Photo supplied.

Taxi operators march to MEC, asking for an intervention

 

On Wednesday, 6 April, taxi operators and owners affiliated with the LTT-Musina Taxi Association and Makhado Long Distance Taxi Association (MALTA) marched to the office of Limpopo MEC for the Department of Transport and Community Safety, Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya, and the Premier’s office to hand over a memorandum with detailed grievances. Their concern is the ongoing war between taxi associations operating on the same route.

The LTT-Musina Taxi Association and MALTA operators accuse the Beitbridge Taxi Association (BTA) of still invading their territory and poaching their customers, despite a ruling that was made by the Polokwane High Court in 2019. The ruling came into effect in 2020 after the same conflicts between the associations flared up and the BTA was prohibited from operating on the Musina-to-Louis Trichardt route as well as the Musina-to-Polokwane route.

The Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport, as well as the SAPS, were instructed by the court to enforce the law by issuing fines and arresting BTA members, should they operate on these routes.

The LTT-Musina Taxi Association and MALTA members complained that the court order was not implemented as, a week or so later in the same year (2020), their members were again intimidated by BTA members, who were blocking their entrance to the Musina Taxi Rank and preventing them from operating. Four BTA members were arrested at the time.

MALTA’s chairperson, Mr Mathakha Maliaga, said that the ongoing fight now was because of the department and SAPS’s repeated failure to act according to the court’s instructions. Theirs and the LTT-Musina Taxi Association’s feud with the BTA, Maliaga said, was making life difficult for everyone as they lost a lot of money while their businesses were affected by it.

In their memorandum, they also point out that certain members of the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) should be investigated for protecting the BTA. “We demand that the office of the registrar be investigated as it is the core of the conflicts in the taxi industry in our province.” The premier and MEC were given seven days to respond.

By Tuesday this week (19th), the department had not yet responded to the memorandum.

The spokesperson for the Department of Roads and Transport, Mr Mike Maringa, confirmed that they had received the memorandum, but said they would not comment on the matter until such time that they had formally responded to the taxi associations.

 

 

Date:21 April 2022

By: Kaizer Nengovhela

Kaizer Nengovhela started writing stories for Limpopo Mirror in 2000. Prior to that he had a five year stint at Phala-Phala FM as sports presenter. In 2005 Kaizer received an award from the province's premier as Best Sports Presenter. The same year he was also nominated as Best Sports Reporter by the Makhado Municipality. Kaizer was awarded the Mathatha Tsedu award in 2014.

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