There is an outcry among various taxi associations regarding the impounding of taxi vehicles by traffic officials, especially in the Tshwane area.
At the moment several taxi vehicles have been impounded by TMPD traffic officers after being found to be lacking a public transport operating license.
South African National Taxi Council Chairperson Midday Mali told Tshwane Talks that his association has written a letter to MEC for Roads and Transport Kedibone Tlabela-Diale to discuss the issue of operating licenses, as they are the cause of the conflict between traffic officials and taxi operators.
He pointed out that at the moment the MEC depends on the national database to issue operating licenses, and this takes long.
Mali is of the opinion that the MEC must have her own Gauteng Provincial database which she would use to speed up the process of issuing operating licenses.
He said the operating licenses, which are at the centre of the dispute, are in three categories, namely replacements, renewals and transfer of ownership.
He said in some cases a widow who inherits the taxi vehicle from her husband hasn’t been in the taxi industry and has to get a transfer of ownership certificate before she can be given permission to operate, and this takes long, leaving the widow with no income at all.
HOD in the Department of Roads and Transport Thulani Mdadane acknowledged that there is a backlog in issuing public transport operating licenses, pointing out that a taxi is a public transport and not a private vehicle, and that anyone driving a taxi vehicle must be in possession of a public driver’s license and the taxi vehicle and its owner must have certain accreditation.
“Of late we have realised that there are many people in the database who have obtained public transport operating licenses fraudulently, hence we must clean up the system and secondly, there are some people who operate in more than one route, and this is a violation of the agreement reached between taxi associations and local municipalities,” he said.
“Some of the routes are already saturated, yet some people expect us to continue issuing public transport operating licenses,” said Mdadane as he revealed that the fraud in issuing the said operating licenses was perpetuated by some of the officials in the traffic department together with individuals who bribed them.
“Let the taxi operators give us time and space to clean up the system and root out any fraudulent acts that may have taken place,” said Mdadane.
He said cleaning up the system is part of the department’s efforts to formalise the taxi industry, and they also want to know who the owner of each taxi vehicle is, the engine number of the vehicle and whether the driver has a public transport operating license.
Mamelodi Local and Long-Distance Taxi Association (MALLDTA) chairperson Stemmer Monageng told Tshwane Talks that it seems like there is a strategy by traffic law-enforcement officials to make money by delaying the issuing of public transport operating licenses while at the same time impounding vehicles that are found to be lacking the said operating licenses.
“Taxi owners and drivers are really frustrated at the moment because their vehicles get impounded and when a vehicle gets impounded it obviously won’t bring the much-needed daily income or checkings,” said Monageng.
“One day drivers will shut down the roads and demand that the police must release the impounded taxi vehicles,” warned Monageng.
He stressed that if taxi vehicles have been impounded for violating traffic rules, then the drivers must just be issued with a fine so that the vehicle must continue with its routine, but that if the impounding is related to lack of operating licenses, then the taxi vehicles must be excused from such punishment until the department itself sorts out the issue of delayed operating licenses.
“The fees demanded for the release of impounded vehicles is exorbitant and it is clear that the department has realised that it is making lots of money from impounded taxi vehicles,” he said as he pointed out that the issue of impounded cars has been there for many years now, but that it has become worse in the last three or four months.
“Previously an impounded vehicle could be released after payment of R1000 or R1 500 fine, but these days these amounts have been inflated up to R5 000,” lamented Monageng.
Mamelodi Amalgamated Taxi Association chairperson Ben Maredi said he was most concerned about the fact that the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has stopped processing operating licenses yet on the other hand traffic officials continue to impound taxi vehicles for failure to produce the said operating licenses.
“This looks like a rip-off to us as a taxi association and about 40 taxi vehicles were impounded in Atteridgeville last week while 19 were impounded in Mamelodi in the selfsame week,” said Maredi.
He revealed that at a meeting between MATA Public Relations Officer Maubane and municipal officials it was resolved that the Quantum vehicles that would be impounded are only the new ones, and that those who merely lack transfer of ownership licenses and renewal of licenses won’t be impounded any longer.
He ruled out the possibility of Mamelodi taxi drivers embarking on a strike as MATA has not discussed this matter yet.