The chairperson of the Alexandra Taxi Association, Vusi Mayaba, was shot and killed on Thursday night in Woodmead, in what is becoming a reign of terror against Alexandra taxi bosses.
According to preliminary information, Mayaba was gunned down by unknown assailants in the parking lot outside The Baron Restaurant.
Emergency services responded to the scene, but he was declared dead shortly thereafter.
Alexandra taxi bosses mowed down
Mayaba’s murder comes amid a rising number of hits on taxi bosses. Two members of the same association were fatally shot in Carlswald, Midrand, on December 2.
In October, well-known taxi boss Victor Molefe Moekeletsi, who was the chairperson of the Alexandra, Randburg, Midrand, and Sandton Taxi Association, was shot dead at Marlboro Gardens together with one of his bodyguards.
Speaking to Sunday World, City of Johannesburg MMC for Roads and Transport Kenny Kunene said the killings are concerning.
“We are very worried because in 2025 alone, and I am not including other taxi murders, three taxi bosses in Gauteng were killed. These people were transforming the taxi industry, and so we are very worried,” said Kunene.
He added that the industry needs a national taxi killings task team because taxi murders are more than political killings.
Killings related to organised crimeÂ
“By the way, I felt vindicated when [police] minister Senzo Mchunu was testifying before the Madlanga commission because he gave the numbers, and he said 35% of killings in South Africa are related to organised crimes,” he added.
According to Kunene, the taxi killings happen frequently because the police are not interested in investigating.
“It is a tragedy, it is a state of emergency, and sadly in 2025 we have seen taxi bosses being killed in the City of Johannesburg. I still call on police to put together national taxi killings task team,” he said.
Contract killers are incentivised
Meanwhile, Theo Malele, spokesperson of the National Taxi Alliance (NTA) said the problem is that there is no deterrant instead people get incentives for killing others.
“One gets sentenced to 15 years imprisonment but seven years down the line they are back and running businesses. We are calling for harsher sentences so that people know that it would be impossible for them to have a life after committing crime.”
Malele said associations always hand over information, however that makes them become the next target.
“We have a serious issue of corrupt police officers. When association gives information to the police, they take that information and give it to the perpetrator and then the next thing you know they are next in line to be killed.”
Moekeletsi’s convoy, consisting of an Audi and a Mahindra bakkie carrying security personnel, was ambushed and fired upon by unknown gunmen in a white BMW X5. No arrests have been made.
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