Members of Ga-Rankuwa Local and Long Distance Taxi Association are aggrieved about the fact that the Gauteng Provincial government has failed to issue them with permits to operate their taxis but has instead allowed the Tshwane Metro Police Department officers to impound their vehicles.
The members have put a special message on their taxis that written “MMC please assist us with permit”.
The members vow they will never take them off until their plead is heard.
GULLDTA Treasurer Gary Madumo told Tshwane Talks that they as operators of small taxi vehicles known as “Ventures” in the township of Tshwane are bearing the brunt of City of Tshwane Municipality Police Department officers who insist that their small vehicles don’t have specification to operate as taxis; that only bigger taxi vehicles like Quantums are allowed to operate.
“Forty of the small taxi vehicles were recently impounded and sent to Koedoespoort where a fee of R6000 was demanded before they could be released back to their owners,” said Madumo.
“We complied and borrowed money to pay for the release of the cars and we then held a meeting with senior Department of Roads and Transport in the Gauteng Province on 20 March this year at the Koedoespoort offices and we were told that Ventures, Sizukis, Avanzas and Ferefere vehicles are not taxi vehicles and will be impounded,” lamented Madumo.
He said he has personally purchased a new Suzuki vehicle in 2024 and uses it as a taxi vehicle, but be that as it may, TMPD officers don’t recognise it as a taxi vehicle.
He then asked to be given permit to operate as a local taxi driver because the local taxi committee market requires small vehicles like Suzuki vehicles, but his request was turned down.
“The Gauteng Department of Transport officials had promised to apply Section 66 of the law which would allow us to have permits as operators of small taxi vehicles and we were told to send proposals, so we were surprised to see our cars being impounded on Sunday at the OK taxi rank situated at the Ga-Rankuwa Mall, as we had thought that we would never be arrested again,” he said.
He complained that MMC for Transport Tlangi Mogale as well as the Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya have failed to attend meetings that have been arranged between them as GULLDTA and the mayor’s office.
“The TMPD officers must rather kill us because when we speak for our rights we are threatened with violence,” he said.
“The TMPD officers told us that they don’t recognise what we agreed upon at Koedoespoort with Gauteng senior Department of Transport officials; that they use City of Tshwane by-laws and after they impounded our vehicles on Sunday we blocked the local main road and demanded that our vehicles be returned,” he said.
“We made it clear to the authorities that our protest was peaceful but we were surprised when at around 6pm they ordered us to remove our cars and after we did so, they went on to shoot at us; thus forcing us to run away,” said Madumo.
He added that 30% of law-enforcement officers in the country are taxi owners and indicated that this is against the law.
He said since the government has indicated that it has a budget shortfall, it must issue temporary permits to small taxi operators who must pay a certain fee for the said permits ; thus resulting in the government making some money.
He added that some taxi vehicles were scrapped and their owners were given some money by the government, but sadly the budget to pay owners of scrapped taxis doesn’t exist anymore.
He further said in some instances it takes a year for one to renew permits of their taxi vehicles due to the government’s inefficiency.