The City of Cape Town said it may take legal action and also launch a civil claim for damages to infrastructure against the organisers of yesterday’s taxi march.
While the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) and Cope Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association (CODETA) have stressed that their action was peaceful, three Golden Arrow buses were torched injuring four commuters while another bus was hijacked and later retrieved.
Infrastructure in parts of the city was also damaged.
Hundreds of taxi operators walked more than 21 kilometers from Nyanga to Cape Town CBD to voice their concerns over permits and their vehicles being impounded.
As they made their way to the provincial parliament, busses and some taxis were attacked.
CATA’s Mandla Hermanus said they are not responsible for the violence.
“They have been incidents where busses have been burnt but those were not related to us. It’s easy for SAPS and the department of transport whenever a bus has been burnt to say it’s the taxi industry.’’
Mayco member for Safety and Security JP Smith said a truck was set alight and other vehicles damaged. Smith added that a woman’s taxi was also smashed.
“I’m sending these to legal services in the city to look at the city tries to recover damages from the associations if we can pull the private citizens and their damage claims into it, system with their claims as well but of course we will need to prove who is responsible for the damages, link it to the protest action, ” said Smith.
He said the estimated damages amount to at least 4 to 5 million rand.
-EWN
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