The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) has been given the go-ahead by the Transport Department to carry 10 passengers per taxi for the remainder of the national shutdown.
The organization had threatened a national strike over the regulations announced by the government.
Drivers were only allowed to carry seven passengers per trip, between 5 am and 9 am and again from 4 pm.
Santaco has now called off its planned strike after talks with the government.
The regulations announced by the government stipulated that drivers could only ferry a maximum of seven passengers at a time, to ensure they had several seats between them.
Taxi operators also had to provide hand sanitizers for passengers.
The amended arrangement now allows drivers to load up to 10 people per trip, which means only five seats in the taxi will be empty.
While this means drivers will be able to make a profit, it will make social distancing harder for commuters.
Santaco’s Thabisho Molelekwa said: “We were given the option to go full capacity provided that there are sanitizers and masks in the vehicles. The reason why we rejected that offer is because it goes against the policy of social distancing.”
Taxis will now also operate for 9 hours a day.
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Source: EWN
