Johannesburg – Taxi commuters and pupils at Durban’s Inanda township are forced to look over their shoulders fearing taxi warlords who have resorted to targeting passengers in their deadly feud over routes.
Since last year, 18 people have lost their lives including commuters and taxi operators as rival taxi associations resort to settling their disputes through the barrel of a gun.
On Tuesday, three pupils survived when armed assailants shot a taxi transporting them to school. Ntokozo Xaba laments the anguish that his family went through when his mother was shot and killed in a taxi.
“It has been very depressing and an emotionally draining exercise trying to come to terms with her untimely passing. We still have unanswered questions as a family. My mother had done nothing wrong and she died in the most brutal way,” he says.
He notes that the police have failed to resolve the case six months after the vicious killing of his mother.
“They keep telling us that they are following leads, all we wants as a family is justice for my mother. Her death left a void that no one else can fill and she was the breadwinner.”
The 55-year-old Nomusa Xaba was on her way to work when unknown assassins opened fire on a fully loaded taxi in the Ohlange area last July.
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Eight other passengers sustained serious wounds. Mary de Haas, KwaZulu-Natal violence monitor, says the government is losing the war against taxi violence in the province.
“The situation is severe and desperate and those responsible for protecting citizens are sleeping on duty.
“The proliferation of unlicensed firearms in the taxi industry coupled with incapacity in the police intelligence give rise to the incidents,” says De Haas.
Last week, KwaZulu-Natal police killed three suspected hitmen who are alleged to have been key movers in stoking taxi wars.
The deceased are believed to have fired several rounds of ammunition at a moving taxi near the local area of Umzinyathi.
Five passengers were injured when three gun-wielding assassins ambushed the vehicle. The driver managed to escape. Kwanele Ncalane, KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson for transport, concedes that the industry is spiralling out of control.
“The MEC is concerned with the ongoing taxi war and criminality within the Inanda area as innocent people are caught in the crossfire. The provincial department and national government are working jointly in their ongoing efforts to resolve the conflict and arresting the masterminds,” says Ncalane.
The volatile taxi industry in Durban has halted the eThekwini municipality’s multimillion-rand new public transport network. The project has been put on hold since 2015 because the city does not see eye to eye with taxi operators who demand a bigger stake in the project. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele says a task team has been dispatched to conduct investigation.
She says the task team has made some progress with the arrest of alleged key movers linked to the conflict.
Reporting by Sandile Motha.
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