MMC for Roads and Transport in the City of Tshwane Tlangi Mogale has advised e-hailing operators to organise themselves better and establish associations which would make it easier for the government to locate and assist them.
“It would be easy to deal with issues affecting e-hailing operators if they had a solid structure to enable the City of Tshwane to know exactly who the operators are,” said Mogale.
She gave this advice to e-hailing operators at a meeting held at the Ou Raadsaal Building, Church Square in Tshwane on Thursday.
“There has been lots of criminal activities whereby thieves posing as e-hailing operators have capitalised on the weaknesses of the soft-ware that is being currently used to commit heinous crimes, like rape, robbery and murder,” explained Mogale.
According to MMC Mogale, the meeting was between her and the e-hailing operators was convened to iron out concerns raised by e-hailing drivers regarding Tshwane Metro Police Department officials who impound their cars as they don’t have permits to operate their businesses.
E-hailing drivers complained that their cars get impounded even when they produce receipts that indicate that they have submitted applications for permits to operate as e-hailing drivers.
“Receipts are not permits and one must be in possession of a fully-fledged permit before working as an e-hailing operator,” warned Mogale.
She said as her department is not involved in the administration duties regarding issuing of permits, they made follow ups with the Gauteng Provincial Government’s Road and Transport Department and were told that there is a backlog in processing application for permits.
“There are around 6 100 applications which have been received and out of this amount only 2500 of them have been resolved,” said Mogale.
“The reason we wanted to meet with the e-hailing operators is that some of their complaints are justified and we need to help them, but there are those who are exploiting the messy situation that the Gauteng Department of Transport funds itself in by not complying with the requirements of the act which governs e-hailing operators,” she said.
“Such people claim they haven’t received permits but can’t produce receipts to show that they have applied for the said permits,” lamented Mogale.
She said a provincial crisis committee was formed last week to sort out issues related to permits within six months.
“I am also personally going to engage with the MEC for Transport in Gauteng because reality is that our people are badly affected and now it is Christmas time and they need to feed their families,” said Mogale.
“If the e-hailing operators have done what us required of them in their applications for permits, and the fault lies with the City of Tshwane Municipality or the Gauteng Provincial Transport Department regarding the delay, then we must rectify the situation,” said Mogale.
She pointed out that while they will be taking the concerns of the e-hailing drivers to the provincial structures, that doesn’t mean e-hailing drivers must stop playing by the rules and breaking the law.
She admitted that in some cases the delays were unreasonably long as in the case of a e-hailing operator who submitted his application in November last year but has not received a response as yet.
“An application for a permit of this nature usually takes only 60 days, and as we can’t stop traffic officials from impounding cars of those who don’t have permits, we shall try to find a way to relax the regulations where it is practical and possible regarding the impounding of cars,” she said.
Member of the e-hailing association Itumeleng Boikanyo expressed joy that MMC Mogale has agreed to meet them as e-haling operators and encouraged them to come under one umbrella so that they can speak with one voice going forward.
Another e-hailing driver also expressed satisfaction about the fact that MMC Mogale has given them time as e-hailing operators to sort themselves out and put their house in order.
“All along we have been terrorised by the TMPD officials on the road without knowing where we could lodge our complaints, but now I am pleased to know that there is somebody who is willing to listen to our complaints,” he said.
South Africans Meter Taxi and E-hailing Association (SAMTEA) member Jan Ngobeni told Tshwane Talks that the meeting with the MMC was positive and that he is pleased that people who are working with MMC Mogale on the e-hailing matter are people that they are familiar with and know what the issue of e-hailing very well.