Nine taxi operators have been arrested in the North West after taking part in a taxi strike on Monday morning, leaving residents of Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp, Ventersdorp, and Wolmaranstad stranded.
The taxi operators barricaded the N12 national road between Potchefstroom and Wolmaransstad with objects, taxis, and burning tyres.
They were demanding that the North West Department of Transport, Management, and Community Safety consider issuing them permits.
They said they had not been able to renew their licenses since 2017.
The taxi owners indicated they could not renew their permits because officials from the permits office told them that the system would no longer issue permits.
One of the taxi operators, Tumelo Mere, said without permits, they cannot operate their operations.
“We have already purchased taxis and must make monthly instalments. Many of us currently have expired permits. We can’t renew them; how are we supposed to operate?” he asked.
Another taxi operator, Thabo Monnatlala, said they were told they could no longer apply for permits.
“Last week he heard that permits will no longer be issued here in the North West … they say the systems are not working; we make a lot of trips to that office, but we are not getting help,” he said.
Santaco wants its members freed
Monnatlala said getting an operating license was essential.
“We have taxis that are taking children to school. We have taxis that commute people to their destination daily, and we have long-distance taxis.
“This is our daily bread and the traffic officers always impound our taxis when they realise that we do not have operating licenses.
“We pay R1 500 to release a taxi when it is impounded; that’s a loss and a fault that could have been prevented if the department was doing their things correctly,” he said.
The provincial spokesperson for the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), Shekile Matjekani, demanded that their members be released from police custody.
“We have met with the MEC for transport [Wessels Morweng], and he has agreed that the operators will be released tonight.
“We have managed to reach an agreement, and everything will be back to normal tomorrow,” he said.
Matjekani said Morweng told them that there was a miscommunication when it came to the permits.
“We just learnt that what they wanted to communicate was that there won’t be any issuing of new operation licenses.
“Taxi operators thought that the government was talking about the ones that needed to be lifted,” he said.
Department engages with taximen
The North West MEC for the department of transport management and community safety, Alphy Keonyaditse, said the taxi operators have agreed to open the road.
“There will be further engagement on the issues that they have raised, including funding. The misunderstanding was purely the communication between themselves and the officials in terms of how the operator license was to be issued.
“We have paused the process until we do our audits to check on how many taxi operators are on the road. Remember, there are also illegal operators.
“Some people were issued with licenses and they had expired; some somebody in the taxi industry misunderstood that the non-issuance was only for the new license rather than the operating licenses,” Keonyaditse said.
Meanwhile, local schools were also affected, as pupils could not be sent to school.
