The national taxi summit, aimed at regulating the industry, will go ahead later this week despite the National Taxi Alliance (NTA), SA’s second-largest taxi association, pulling out at the eleventh hour.
The NTA said the government is acting in bad faith. “It is bad” of transport minister Fikile Mbalula to expect it to participate in the meeting as “praise singers of his preferred organisation, Santaco [SA National Taxi Council], with no participatory independence and identity”, NTA president Francis Mohanoe Masitsa said.
Santaco spokesperson Thabiso Molelekwa did not respond to requests for comment.
But President Cyril Ramaphosa said the summit, expected to start on Thursday, will go ahead. In his newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa said the government, civil society and industry stakeholders will chart the course towards a more efficient sector. He called on the conference to “emerge with a blueprint for a formalised industry that plays a meaningful role in the mainstream economy and is effectively regulated”.
“When public transport is unsafe, unreliable and costly, it also affects economic activity. Given that about four in 10 workers use public transport to reach their workplaces, these challenges have knock-on effects on productivity, labour relations and business functioning.”
Ramaphosa said the government is working with all stakeholders to improve the state of public transport to expand manufacturing, increase local production, stimulate small business activity and create more job opportunities.
“Simply put, we cannot achieve the economic growth and recovery we aspire towards if people cannot get to work on time and safely,” the president said.
The NTA has also given the minister 10 days to pay out the R1.14bn Covid-19 relief fund for the sector to recipients. The industry, however, initially rejected the fund, saying the money is a drop in the ocean compared to the losses incurred during the hard lockdown.
“In the event that the government fails to meet the 10 days payment of the relief fund deadline, our lawyers have been instructed to go to court to pray for an order compelling government to pay out the relief fund,” Masitsa said.
The NTA said it will announce the dates for its protest marches against “the bad treatment and misrule of the taxi industry by [the] government” on Friday.
Mbalula’s spokesperson Ayanda-Allie Paine said: “We are not going to comment on NTA on public platforms ... nothing has changed with regards to plans to hold the national lekgotla ... the minister continues to hold meetings with the leadership of the NTA.”
At a provincial taxi summit in Parys, Free State on Monday, Mbalula criticised those who believe the conference is not important, despite being invited to participate.
“The disadvantage is that we will take decisions on their behalf and those decisions will be binding. We want NTA and Santaco to come to talks. Everyone ... is accommodated.”
mkentanel@businesslive.co.za
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