campaign photo by Dimakatso Modipa
South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) held a road safety awareness event called Hlokomela Campaign at the Bosman Taxi Rank in Tshwane on Thursday morning.
SANTACO Gauteng Province in collaboration with TETA partner and held an awareness campaign of Hlokomela, a groundbreaking road safety awareness campaign designed to promote the safety of passengers and enhance responsible practices within the taxi industry.
SANTACO was supported by TETA, RAF, MTN, RTSA, City of Tshwane, Standard Bank, Gauteng department of Transport, different Tshwane taxi association including the drivers and commuters.
The officials hand out phamplets to drivers and commuters and also engage with them about road safety.
Officials also took an opportunity to inspect the taxis at the rank.
According to SANTACO spokesperson in Tshwane McDonald Makata, the aim of the Hlokomela Campaign is to intensify the association’s efforts regarding road safety as the country is now in a festive season.
“We have met with our drivers and commuters alike to encourage them to heed road safety measures so as to arrive alive at their destinations,” said Makata.
Makata said the Hlokomela (a Sesotho term meaning “to care”) is a campaign initiated by the taxi industry to address critical safety challenges faced by passengers, drivers, and all road users.
This initiative reflects the industry’s commitment to fostering safer travel conditions, protecting lives, and ensuring reliable transportation services.
“Bosman Taxi Rank caters mostly for long distances and so we are here to urge our drivers to make sure that their vehicles are ready for the said long distances,” he said.
“We want our commuters and drivers to travel safely,” he said.
“We are going to make an inspection of the tyres of our vehicles, windscreens, seat belts, and in the case of tyres, there is no way we would allow a vehicle whose tyres are not in good shape to leave the rank carrying passengers, that is an absolute no no,” he enthused.
“Considering the heatwave that the country is experiencing at the moment, a taxi vehicle with tyres that are not in good condition would be a high risk and what we do is to ask the owner of the taxi to immediately replace the worn-out tyres before the taxi can carry any passengers,” emphasised Makata.
He revealed that the Hlokomela Campaign has been in place all along; that what they are doing now is to merely intensify it considering that this is festive season period.
Makata assured commuters to travel with relief because SANTACO’s taxi drivers have been trained very well in catering for the needs of the passengers.
“For instance, drivers must stop and take a break when passengers ask them to do so, and in turn they as drivers must ask passengers for a break of 20 minutes or so when they feel tired and need a rest,” he said.
Hlokomela Campaign is a taxi industry initiative aimed at addressing critical road safety challenges faced by passengers, drivers and all road users.
SANTACO is of the opinion that Hlokomela Campaign reflects the taxi industry’s commitment to fostering safer travel conditions, protection of lives and ensuring reliable transport services.
“I’m so happy to see the association took upon themselves and held an awareness campaign on road safety and it is show they care about us as commuters, ” said Lebogang Mashile.
“I like the way SANTACO is doing, and I hope other association see and take it from them.
SANTACO care for the safety of their commuters and I will ride their taxis with confidence and knowing that I’m safe,” said Sophie Matlala.
“We are very excited about the Hlokomela campaign, and we see that SANTACO is working hard and educating us about road safety as drivers,” said driver operators David Sehlola.