Africa-Press – South-Africa. The City of Cape Town moved quickly to assure jittery commuters there was no new taxi strike as pictures circulated of a portion of Christiaan Barnard Boulevard, near the station deck taxi rank, being cordoned off on Tuesday.
The City’s safety MMC, JP Smith, stated at 15:00 the provincial taxi regulator was acting against illegal operators who were loading passengers at the rank’s entrance.
The police, law enforcement, metro police and other traffic services were on the scene.
The road was quickly reopened, and taxi traffic started flowing again.
“No staff is under threat,” said Smith.
A deal between the City, provincial transport authorities and the SA National Taxi Association (Santaco), following the deadly August taxi stayaway, relies on there being no incidents of violence while the finer points of contested impoundments are thrashed out by a task team.
Fresh in the mind of most Capetonians is the sequence of events that played out after the abrupt withdrawal of minibus taxi services on 3 August, during a deadlock between Santaco and the City over taxis being impounded.
Five people were killed as shadowy figures prevented any alternate forms of public transport, or targeted drivers going through high-risk areas.
Thousands of commuters had to walk long distances to work and back or miss work completely during the stayaway.
Asked for comment, Santaco shared the City’s statement.
On 31 August, a joint statement by the City, Santaco and the provincial government said they found common ground on what were fair and rational consequences for most of the operating licence condition transgressions.
For the following four weeks, they will continue working together on outstanding issues.
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