Santaco Western Cape seeking court order to release impounded taxis as strike continues
Taxi commuters in the Western Cape are waking up to no transport again on Thursday morning as the strike continues for an eighth consecutive day.
Taxi council Santaco said that it would be launching an urgent court interdict to have their impounded vehicles released.
Thousands of commuters have been left stranded since operations were halted exactly a week ago.
The taxi industry is unhappy with the recent impounding of minibusses by the City of Cape Town.
The transport ministry insists the city’s use of an amended traffic by-law to seize minibuses is unlawful but the city claims it’s always been using the already existing national legislation.
Santaco said that the application would be launched within the next 48 hours and operations would only resume once this process was completed.
Santaco provincial chairperson, Mandla Hermanus, said that they were sceptical about sending taxis back on the roads following the City of Cape Town’s statements around further taxi impoundments.
Last week, Safety and Security MEC JP Smith announced that the city would impound 25 minibus taxis for every bus, truck, private vehicle or facility vandalized.
Hermanus said that they needed to ensure that conditions on the roads were conducive for their drivers to operate normally.
“It doesn’t help to posture and speak with an iron fist, we have to look for solutions and we should do everything in our power, us and the city – the city should work with us.”
Santaco in the Western Cape added that it sympathized with commuters who had been left stranded due to the taxi strike.
The taxi council said it was not proud of the inconvenience the stay away had caused its commuters.
“We feel the pain of our commuters. We are feeling the pain ourselves because it’s our vehicles, it’s us who are not going to be able to meet the monthly repayments at the end of this month. So, it’s us as well who are going to suffer, as well as our families and the families of those who could not go to work due to the taxi strike,” Hermanus said.
-EWN
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