The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) on Saturday committed to working with the government to transform and formalize the taxi industry.
The three-day national taxi lekgotla concluded on Saturday, where a declaration was adopted to tackle challenges confronting the industry.
The director-general of the Department of Transport, Alec Moemi, said some of the key issues brought up were around funding and subsidies.
“This has been a major contestation on the side of the industry, that the government is expecting too much of them, yet there are no subsidies. The government’s approach all along has been to say it’s too expensive and unaffordable. But now we do recognize that the two must go together,” Moemi said.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said from April next year the government would introduce a subsidy for the industry.
But in order for this to happen the government wanted the sector to be formalized.
Santaco president Phillip Taaibosch said the public perceived taxi bosses and their drivers as a law unto themselves, but this should change.
“On the issue of professionalization, we will now begin to use our training centre and the Transport Education Training Authority (TETA) to train the operators and drivers,” he said.
-EWN
In other news – Kelly Khumalo finally breaks her silence as Senzo Meyiwa case heats up
Musician Kelly Khumalo has broken her silence over the latest developments in the murder case of her late boyfriend and Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa.
On Saturday evening, former Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) treasurer-general Magdalene Moonsamy released a statement confirming that her law firm has been appointed as Khumalo’s legal representative on the matter. Learn More
