Former Western Cape Transport MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela says enforcing laws alone, won’t solve Cape Town’s public transport issues.
His comments follow the recent violence, apparently by taxi operators.
Madikizela says there’s inconsistency in the issuing of operating licenses to the operators by local authorities, and this is leading to an increase in taxis operating illegally on some routes.
The taxi industry is requesting licenses to operate in new economic areas, because there’re no public transport routes there yet.
However, they’re not getting a favourable response from the City.
Madikizela says government is failing to expedite the process to subsidise the industry.
“ As a result of that, you have challenges like people invading other routes in order to make more money, because that’s the only way to survive. Not that I’m condoning that kind of action. If people have to survive, they will do all sorts of things that can be prevented, if government had to come to the party and make that the process to formalise the industry is led from the top”.
He adds that this the problem won’t end until solutions are found.
“ To flex your muscle and enforcing the law isn’t enough. As I said those people who are responsible for the violence, must face the full might of the law, but over and above that as leadership, we need to go beyond that and get to the root of the problem, which I have always endeavoured to do”.
There’s been sporadic incidents of taxi-related violence, especially in Nyanga in recent weeks. On Monday, the violence spilled over to Hout Bay, where taxi operators were unhappy about permit issues.
