COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY INTO THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF
INSTABILITY AND CONFLICT IN THE MINIBUS TAXI INDUSTRY IN THE
REPORT TO THE PREMIER
CHAIRPERSON: ADV. DUMISA NTSEBEZA
EMBARGOED UNTIL
AFTER PRESENTATION TO THE PREMIER
Disclaimer:
The contents of this report reflect the professional
opinion of the Committee of Inquiry into the underlying causes of instability
and conflict in the minibus taxi industry. They reflect the independent opinion
of its members and do not in any way reflect the opinion, ideas or agendas of
any political party in the
AFU Asset
Forfeiture Unit
AMAPHELA Unroadworthy sedan taxis used to ferry passengers in
the African areas
ANC African National Congress
BELLTA Bellville Taxi Association
BLOEWATA Bloekombos,
Wallacedene Taxi Association
CATA
CCT City
of
CODETA
DA Democratic
DOCS Department
of Community Safety
DCS Department of Community
Safety
GABS Golden Arrow Bus Service
IMBIZO A summit; a consultative gathering of stakeholders and
interested parties
IMBOVANE Hitmen or Hit squads as referred to
in the taxi industry in
the
Western and
LAGUNYA Langa, Guguletu, Nyanga Taxi Association
MASHWABANA An unroadworthy taxi van used for
conveying passengers
in African areas
MOTHER BODY An affiliate of taxi associations
NACTU National
Council of Trade Unions
NDOT National Department of Transport
NIA
National
Intelligence Agency
NLTTA
NTA National
Taxi
PAC Pan Africanist Congress
PDP Public drivers
permit
PEACA Peninsula Anti-Crime Agency
POLB Provincial Operating License Board
PTI Public
Transport Interchange
SANCO South African National Civics
Organisation
SAPS South
African Police Services
SARCC South
African Rail Commuter Corporation
SARS South African Revenue Service
SDU Self Defence Unit
SEAWATER Seawater Taxi Association
SNKTA Scottsdene,Northpine,Kraaifontein Taxi
Association
TRP Taxi Recapitalisation Programme
UDM United Democratic Movement
UMAC U Managing Conflict
WARLORDS A
group of people who are responsible for acts of
violence
WCPTC Western
WEBTA Western
|
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Establishment of the Committee 1.2 Terms of reference 1.3 Methodology 1.4 Constraints under which the Committee has operated 1.5 Applicable legislation 2. THE PASSENGER TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN THE AREA 2.1 THE 2.2.REGIONAL COUNCILS 2.3 CODETA 2.4 CATA 2.5 2.6 GOLDEN ARROW BUS SERVICES
(gabs) 2.7 METRORAIL 3. INSTITUTIONS 3.1 Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works 3.2 Provincial Operational
Licensing Board 3.3 Provincial Taxi Registrar 3.4 City of Department 4. LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES 4.1 WESTERN CAPE DEPARTMENT OF
COMMUNITY SAFETY 4.2 SAPS 4.3 PROVINCIAL TRAFFIC POLICE 4.4 CITY OF 4.5 CITY POLICE 4.6 CITY LAW ENFORCEMENT
OFFICERS 5. OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES 5.1 THE NATIONAL PROSECUTING AUTHORITY (NPA) 5.2 the NATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NIA) 6. OTHER STAKEHOLDERS 6.1 ORGANISED BUSINESS 6.2 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FORUMS 6.3 CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS 6.4 POLITICAL PARTIES 6.5 INDIVIDUALS 6.6 ORGANISED LABOUR 6.7 NGOs 7. THE PROCESS 7.1 THOSE WHO ACTUALLY PARTICIPATED 7.2 WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS 8 SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE GATHERED 8.1 Evidence from pEOPLE IN DETENTION 8.1.1 PERPETRATORS OF
VIOLENCE IN THE TAXI INDUSTRY 8.1.2 RISE TO POWER 8.1.3 HIT-MEN (IIMBOVANE) 8.1.4 COLLECTION OF MONEYS
FROM THE RANKS 8.1.5 COLLABORATION WITH
LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL 8.1.6 THE MOTIVE 8.2 Evidence from pUBLIC hearings 8.3 Evidence from PRIVATE
hearings 8.4 EVIDENCE FROM SPECIAL
HEARINGS 9. Trends emerging from the body of
evidence 9.1 CULTURE OF
LAWLESSNESS 9.2 PREVALENCE OF HIT SQUADS (ANTS/IIMBOVANE) 9.3 UNRESOLVED ISSUES: “THE STADIUM EVENT” AND “THE LAINGSBURG EVENT” 9.4 CULTURE OF
ENTITLEMENT 9.5 ILLEGAL
OPERATORS 9.6 COLOURED MINIBUS TAXI OPERATORS 9.7 CODETA’S
PERCEPTIONS OF CATA 9.8 CATA’S
PERCEPTIONS OF CODETA 9.9 THE
INDUSTRY’S PERCEPTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 9.10THE
COMMUNITY’S PERCEPTIONS OF THE INDUSTRY 9.11CULTURE OF
FEAR 9.12 WAR CHEST 9.13
CORRUPTION IN STATE INSTITUTIONS 9.14 LACK OF
LAW ENFORCEMENT 9.15
RECAPITALISATION AND OTHER GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES 9.16
SUBSIDISATION 9.17 PUBLIC
TRANSPORT INTERCHANGES/RANKS 10. FINDINGS BY THE COMMITTEE 10.1 UNDERLYING
REASONS FOR THE INSTABILITY AND RECURRING
CONFLICT 10.2 INSTITUTIONAL
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE VIOLENCE 10.3 TAXI ASSOCIATIONS 11 IDENTIFICATION OF
POSSIBLE POTENTIAL AREAS FOR CONTINUING CONFLICT
AND INSTABILITY 11.1 PROVINCIAL
OPERATIONS LICENSING BOARD 11.2 HIT SQUADS 11.3 UNSOLVED CRIMINAL
CASES 11.4 UNCERTAINTY ABOUT
THE FUTURE: RECAPITILISATION PROCESS 11.5 CONTROL AND
MANAGEMENT OF RANKS 11.6 MOTHER BODIES 12. POSSIBLE MECHANISMS
TO ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY, STABILITY AND ABSENCE
OF CONFLICT 12.1 LAW ENFORCEMENT 12.2 REGISTRATION AND DATABASES 12.3 OVERHAUL OF THE
OPERATIONS LICENSING BOARD (POLB) 13. PAST AGREEMENTS
BETWEEN CODETA AND CATA 13.1 ELEMENTS OF A
POSSIBLE AGREEMENT 14. GOVERNMENT’S
OBLIGATION TOWARDS TAXI ASSOCIATIONS 15. RECOMMENDATIONS 16. CONCLUSION |
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The
Committee was established by the Premier of the
The
Premier appointed 4 Committee members, namely Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza as the
Chairperson of the Committee, Mr Irvin Kinnes a criminologist, Mr Bongani Kupe,
a transport economist, and Director Joseph Makhura, a police officer who has
specialised in the investigation of taxi violence in the
The terms of reference of
the Committee were deliberately broad so that it could achieve three things:
Firstly,
it was intended for the Committee to investigate the underlying reasons for the
violence that has plagued the industry; secondly, to identify the people or
groups who are instigating or responsible for the violence, and thirdly, to
establish the structural and institutional factors that contribute to the
conflict.
The
Committee had an investigative unit of four police officers attached to it with
the purpose of acting on some of the information that it had received during
the course of the investigations. The
investigative unit did not have to wait for the Committee to table its report
to the Premier before the necessary action on the information received could be
taken. The Committee had a leader of
evidence, Mr Nkululeko Ntwana and a legal researcher, Adv. Phuti Setati to assist
it, by formally putting all the evidence gathered before it.
The
Committee initially set up operations and sourced the necessary logistics for
the smooth running of the office in order to proceed with the hearings. From
the onset, the Committee was confronted with Ordinance 13 of 1978 which
provided that the Committee conducts its business in private. After taking legal opinion, the Committee
satisfied itself that it could, notwithstanding Ordinance 13, conduct public
hearings. It subsequently did so. The Committee agreed with the Premier and the
opinion of Legal Counsel that there was a constitutional imperative for
openness, accountability and transparency that superseded the provisions of
Ordinance 13 of 1978.
Once the legal matters were finalised, the Committee
held meetings with certain stakeholders in which the Committee explained how it
would work. It also solicited from them
what their expectations were. Briefings
were held with, among others, the Ministers for Community Safety and Transport
and Public Works, various law enforcement agencies, taxi associations,
organised business and labour.
A stakeholder imbizo was held towards the end of May
2005, specifically to urge stakeholders to participate in the process, as well
as to get them to make oral and written submissions to the Committee.
The Committee held both
private and public hearings, and met with 36 organisations and 20 private
persons. In some additional security
arrangements had to be arranged when public hearings were held.
The Committee also visited
most of the taxi ranks affected by the violence.
During the investigations
and hearings the Committee had oral and written submissions and 75
exhibits.
The Committee held public
and private hearings, as well as special hearings. In addition, evidence was
also gathered from people in detention with regard to their roles in some of
the murders that were committed.
In all three cases,
definite trends emerged, pointing to an industry that is governed by chaos
that, in some respects, benefits a certain group of people.
The following trends
emerged from the body of evidence:
There
is a core group of operators in both CATA and CODETA and drivers who are part
of the inner circle ordering the hit squads to kill certain individuals. The
Committee is of the opinion that these individuals who have never been arrested
for ordering killings should be brought to justice. The fact that they have
never been brought to justice facilitates and prolongs the culture of silence.
There are also links with gangs and drugs that need to be investigated,
especially with coloured taxi associations. This is restricted to extortion and
protection rackets.
The
fact that certain killings remain unresolved is an underlying reason in itself
for the continued conflict between CATA and CODETA. Chief unresolved killings
are the Khayelitsha Stadium killings where eleven people were killed and the
Laingsburg events where four people were killed. The fact that nobody has been
arrested for the killings has meant that many people in the industry have not
had the opportunity for closure. A concerted attempt should be made to re-open
both cases and the guilty parties must be brought to justice.
Some
of the routes remain 70% overtraded and the Board continues to issue permits
despite objections from the City. The question
as to whether there is corruption in the Board has been raised by the
Committee. We ordered that a full
forensic audit be conducted on the members and activities of the Board. This
report should be completed in the second week of September.
There are many more issues
that the report deals with relating to the evidence that has been presented
before it.
The report concludes with a list of recommendations that Government,
through the Premier’s Office should urgently implement. The recommendations include:
1.
The establishment of a semi-permanent dispute
resolution body to mediate between taxi associations once disputes arise over
routes.
2.
Such a dispute resolution body should be
independent of, and report to the Provincial Transport Department’s Taxi
Registrar.
3.
Government urgently reviews the workings of the
Provincial
Operating
Licensing Board with a view to changing its working
methods and
internal administrative and other systems.
The Committee
was satisfied for
example, that the POLB’s systems are such that the
requirement that
permit applications should have valid tax clearance
certificates
cannot be free of fraud and forgery.
4.
The practice of the Traffic Department allowing the
CATA and CODETA patrols along the N1 and N2 should be discontinued by the
department.
These patrols do
not have the right to stop vehicles on national roads.
5.
A
multi-disciplinary investigative team comprising of SAPS, SARS, NPA, Crime
Intelligence and NIA should be formed to investigate the taxi warlords who continue
to order the killings, and other serious crimes related thereto, including
contraventions of the Income Tax Act.
6.
The SAPS, Provincial and City Traffic together with
the City Police must set up a joint task team to deal with any eventuality
arising from failed disputes between owners and associations. An early warning system should be developed
and shared amongst the role-players.
1.
INTRODUCTION
Violence in the taxi
industry has affected almost every province in the country. The
The first major taxi
conflict occurred between the late eighties and early nineties, between what
was then known as WEBTA and LAGUNYA. The
work of the Committee has focused on the activities of CATA and CODETA. This
has been so because both CATA and CODETA have been the primary parties to the
conflict over the last ten years.
A
second major taxi war was between CATA and CODETA during the mid nineties. A number of other taxi wars also plagued the
There has also been
intra-association conflict between the affiliates of the associations that
sometimes has gone unnoticed. Despite
the fact that there have been numerous peace agreements between the various
associations and government, these agreements have not stood the test of
time. They were regularly broken when
disputes arose.
As
a result, the Premier and the Cabinet decided to institute a Committee of
Inquiry into the underlying reasons for the instability and conflict in the
minibus taxi industry in the Cape Town Metropolitan area.
1.1 Establishment
of the Committee
The
Committee was established by the Premier of the
The
Premier appointed 4 Committee members, namely Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza as the
chairperson of the Committee, Mr Irvin Kinnes a criminologist, Mr Bongani Kupe,
a transport economist, and Director Joseph Makhura, a police officer who has
specialised in the investigation of taxi violence in the
1.2 Terms
of reference
The Committee was
established in terms of Ordinance 13 of 1978.
According to its terms of reference, the Committee was to conduct an
inquiry into:
the
underlying reasons for the instability and recurring conflict within the
minibus taxi industry (“the industry”)
in the Cape Town Metropolitan area, including, without limitation, reasons
related to:
contributing to
instability, conflict and violence in the industry; and
the industry.
To compile a report detailing:
appointment
1.3 Methodology
In
view of the fact that the Committee was appointed as an investigative
committee, it was decided that despite the provisions of Ordinance 13, which
stipulated that the Committee conducts its hearings in private, there would be
public and private hearings. This was so
because of the imperatives of a constitutional democracy which emphasizes
openness and transparency.
This
much was confirmed by Senior Counsel’s legal opinion which the Committee
obtained at the commencement of its work.
This was also in line with the attitude of the Provincial Government. The Premier, Ebrahim Rasool said as much to
the media at the first media briefing at which he introduced the Committee to
the public and where he also announced that the Committee would commence its
work soon.
The
Committee decided to appoint a leader of evidence and a legal researcher for
the duration of its mandate period.
Advocate
Phuti Setati was the legal researcher and Mr Nkululeko Ntwana was the leader of
evidence. Both Mr Setati and Mr Ntwana
were seconded from the Provincial Legal Services. Informal interviews were conducted with
major stakeholders as a precursor to an imbizo to which all the role-players
and stakeholders would be invited. The
purpose of the informal hearings was to prepare stakeholders for the process of
giving evidence and understanding the role, function and workings of the
Committee.
An
imbizo was then held on
The process and purpose of
the Committee was laid out and people and organisations were then invited to
make submissions.
A press conference was
called on
In addition, an SAPS
hotline number 08600 10111 was used and this was communicated to the
media where members of the public could provide information anonymously if they
wanted to. The line was staffed by
members of the South African Police Services (SAPS) who reported to the
Committee on a daily basis as to the number of callers recorded and the
information that they wanted to provide.
In
addition, confidential informal interviews were conducted with members of the
public, taxi associations, law enforcement agencies, the intelligence agency,
state departments and convicted criminals.
We held public hearings
that were open to the media. At these
hearings, the Committee warned people who testified not to prejudice people who
were accused of crimes, as they had not received adequate notice to defend
themselves in terms of the rules of natural justice.
People were subpoenaed to give
evidence and they were then asked to testify and make submissions.
The Committee also held
private hearings with persons whose identity it felt it had to protect. Where their identity could lead to
intimidation, or death, the hearings were held in private. We also gave people an option to give
evidence in private when the evidence that they would be providing could
compromise their safety.
The Committee also called special
hearings where it felt that there were issues that it had to deal with in a
special manner. There was one instance
when the Committee actually believed that a special hearing between CATA Eyona,
Visits to prisons to
interview convicted persons were conducted to interview them on matters related
to their convictions. We gave them the
opportunity to co-operate with the Committee.
Some chose to co-operate and
others did not.
The Committee agreed to
have the National Intelligence Agency inspect the premises from which the
Committee was operating on a regular basis.
We made arrangements with the security personnel at number
The hearings were all recorded with
simultaneous translations being provided and the transcripts of the hearings
were delivered to the Committee on each subsequent day after a hearing.
1.4
Constraints under which
the Committee has OPERATED
The Committee initially
struggled with its setup phase and the logistics that went with it. During May and the first half of June, the
Committee was busy with setting up administrative systems for evidence
collection. There were several
constraints.
For example, the media
campaign was very ineffective in that the Committee’s communications did not
reach all the people that it was intended to reach. Office setup was difficult
and time consuming. It took about one
month to acquire the necessary resources such as computers, telephones,
photocopier, fax machine, vehicles and the division of office space. This was especially problematic because of
our limited timeframe of three months with which we were supposed to complete
the investigation and develop a report.
Further, Senior Counsel’s opinion referred to above
took some time. One of the issues Senior
Counsel was to advise on was whether public hearings could be held. The delay in obtaining the opinion held up
the organization of public hearings.
Further, secondment of our
legal staff only took place after the first two weeks of operations in view of
the fact that we had difficulty having them released from Provincial Legal
Services. Nevertheless, when once the
systems were up and running, work began feverishly, the aim being to finish on
time.
Other than the legal team,
the Committee was supported by:
Administrative
Staff:
Thandeka Cacambile was
appointed as secretary to the Secretary of the Committee.
Bongani Jack was appointed
as administrator.
Virginia Davids was
appointed as Personal Assistant to the Chairperson.
Investigative team:
The following police investigators were seconded to
the Committee for the duration of its mandate:
Communications
A communication strategy was developed together
with Mr. Clayton Wakeford from the Office of the Premier who assisted with
media communications and arranging press conferences and interviews with the
press.
A company was appointed to
take responsibility for putting out flyers at the taxi ranks to encourage taxi
operators to come forward.
1.5 Applicable
legislation
The following legislation is referred to throughout
the report:
a)
Constitution
of the
b)
c)
Road
Transportation Act, 74 of 1977;
d)
National
Road Traffic Act, 93 of 1996;
e)
f)
Committee
of Inquiry Ordinance 13 of 1978;
g)
South African Police Services Act ,68 of 1995 (as
amended);
h)
National Prosecuting Authority Act, 32 of 1998
i)
Intelligence Services Act, 38 of 1994;
j)
Western
k)
Western
2002);
l)
Western
Conduct
and Grievance Procedure and Forms for Registration with
Provincial
Taxi Registrar (PN 62 of 1997).
Reference is also made to the Minibus Taxi Constitution,
Code of Conduct and Grievance Procedure and Forms for Registration with the
Provincial Taxi Registrar.
2.
THE PASSENGER TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN THE AREA
Passenger transport in the
According
to the City of
During our hearings,
evidence was presented from the City that the taxi routes in the Metro are 70%
overtraded. There are more than 7500
vehicles, of which it is estimated 43% are operating illegally.
Passenger transport is
supposed to be regulated in the industry by the following role-players:
2.1 THE
The
Western Cape Provincial Taxi Council (WCPTC) was formed as a response to the
recommendations made by the National Taxi Task Team to the then Minister of
Transport, Mr Mac Maharaj. The process
started at national level with the formation of the South African National Taxi
Council (SANTACO) and then unfolded at provincial level with the formation of
the Provincial Taxi Councils.
In the
The
WCPTC is made up of 18 regions that are spread across the province. Regions are geographically defined by the
number of taxis in the area. Each
region has four representatives in the WCPTC that make up the full council. The
full council appoints the executive Committee which consists of 22 members -
one member from each region and four co-opted women.
The WCPTC has the following sub-committees:
·
Safety and Security;
·
Special Projects;
·
Labour;
·
Policy and Legislation;
·
·
Economic Development, and
·
Conflict Resolution.
Not much is known about the
activities of these Committees. Some of
the activities of the WCPTC are presently funded by the Western Cape Department
of Transport and Public Works and the offices of the organisation are located
in Athlone,
2.2
REGIONAL
COUNCILS
There
are 18 regional councils that constitute the WCPTC. The representatives in the
WCPTC are elected at regional level for representation at the WCPTC. The
The
regions elect their regional executives and the regional chairpersons
automatically become some of the regional representatives sitting in the
WCPTC. Although the regions have been
formed and representatives elected to the WCPTC, they are still in the process
of developing their constitutions.
Presently they are operating using the standard constitution provided in
the National Land Transport Transition Act 22 of 2000. The Western Cape
Department of Transport is assisting with the development of the constitution
for the regions.
The
absence of a constitution for the regional councils has resulted in the slow
development of the various committees that will mirror those of the WCPTC. As a result all the regional councils have
neither offices nor officials for the
running of their own affairs.
This
lack of facilities and infrastructure has resulted in the breakdown of
communication between the taxi associations and the regional representatives in
most areas. Consequently, the regional
structures in some areas are seen as non existent or lacking adequate
representivity for the local associations.
2.3 CODETA
The
A
meeting was convened at the
The
name CODETA was influenced by the developments that were taking place at the
political level.
CODETA’s aim in the taxi industry was to:
·
Develop the taxi industry;
·
Create peace and stability;
·
Unify the taxi industry;
·
Assist those people who had lost their loved ones
through violence;
·
Set up a strong financial accounting and auditing
system;
·
Set up a database of members, drivers, vehicles and
their location;
·
Set up ongoing liaison with the media and the
public, and
·
Assist the government with the restructuring of the
taxi industry.
All
of the mentioned objectives were never realised during its existence. The first executive
committee of CODETA consisted of sixteen members who were from both LAGUNYA and
WEBTA. This committee continued to
function for about two years before allegations of corruption and
misappropriation of funds emerged. These
allegations led to a breakaway group that was predominantly from the former
WEBTA members. After many failed
attempts to deal with the allegations through negotiations, the breakaway group
formed themselves into an organisation called the Cape Amalgamated Taxi
Association (CATA). The rivalry between
CATA and CODETA grew and resulted in many violent clashes that led to the 1996
Agreement.
An
agreement between CATA and CODETA in 1996 over routes was made an order of the
High Court.
The
1996 Agreement separated the two organisations into two different geographical
areas. CODETA was allocated Khayelitsha
and most of the areas to the north of R300 whilst CATA was given access to the
areas south of R300. The allocation of
areas was not based on anything except the preference for areas. This meant in most instances, that
associations that were on the wrong side of the boundary, were forced to join
the federal structure that was near to them.
CODETA’s
head office is at
All
CODETA’s routes are registered with the Provincial Taxi Registrar. CODETA, as
the federal structure, is not registered with the Registrar since it is not a
route based taxi association and does not have a constitution.
CODETA
survives on contributions from its affiliates.
All the CODETA affiliates pay various funds to the umbrella body and the
money is used for the payment of the office staff, office rent, legal fees and
many other issues that are handled by CODETA.
When the leadership was asked about the details of the organisation’s bank
account, there was some reluctance to divulge the information. Even though we were told by the leadership
that the treasurer gives financial reports to the affiliates, the information
we received from the affiliates was that there were no financial reports.
CODETA,
like CATA, operates both long and short distance routes which originate from
the
In
the past few years CODETA has been involved in violent clashes over routes with
different service providers. CODETA and
CATA have been involved in violent clashes over routes in various areas in
CODETA
supervises the work of the routes and formally speaks on behalf of the
organisation. The joining fees of CODETA
affiliates vary from route to route, but it is reliably understood that
membership fees range from
R20
000 – R30 000.
2.4
CATA
was formed in 1993 by a group of taxi operators mainly from WEBTA because these
operators were dissatisfied with the way the CODETA leadership addressed their
grievances. These members felt that
their views and needs were ignored by CODETA and therefore decided that a
breakaway group was necessary. Their
aim was to establish a group that was going to represent their own
interests. As a result the CATA head
office was initially located at Nyanga Central Rank but later moved to Olivetti
House, Bellville. When it became clear
that CATA was not in a position to pay rent, the offices were moved back to the
Nyanga rank. CATA presently shares
offices with the CATA Long Distance Taxi Association.
CATA
is a federal structure that represents about 14 associations which are known as
branches. Most of them have their point
of origin south of R300 in the
Even
though there is no yearly subscription fee by branches to CATA, the executive
requests branches to pay monies whenever there is need for money. Money is usually requested when the
CATA executive needs to pay for the
activities of the federation. There are
three treasurers. Even though the
executive committee claimed to have a bank account they were not able to
provide the Committee with the details of the account. The branches are responsible for the
maintenance of the CATA federal structure.
In
1996 CATA and CODETA with the assistance of the then Minister for Transport and
Public Works, Leonard Ramatlakane, and the High Court agreed to divide the
areas of origin for the two federal structures.
The intention of this division was to ensure that these federal
structures do not engage in violent clashes as a result of competition for
routes.
Before
the agreement there were associations to the south of R300 that belonged to
CODETA, such as Eyona Taxi Association in Guguletu and Inter-township in
Langa. Because of their location,
these associations were forced to be part of CATA. They joined CATA.
Most
associations that belong to CATA originate from the following ranks:
·
Nyanga Central;
·
Langa;
·
Eyona;
·
Bellville;
·
Nyanga, and
·
Phillipi.
The
Nyanga and Langa ranks have long distance operations that go to areas outside
the
2.5
AMAPHELA
During
its investigations, the Committee came to know of sedan taxis operating in the
townships of Nyanga, Guguletu, Crossroads and Phillipi East. These sedan taxis
are known as “amaphela”. “Amaphela” is
a Xhosa word that denotes cockroaches.
There are taxis that are called “amaphela” in the communities of Nyanga,
Guguletu, Crossroads and Phillipi East. Evidence
presented to the Committee suggested that these taxis operate without licenses,
are un-roadworthy and transport passengers only in the townships. Most of the
drivers of these vehicles do not have licenses.
The operators of “amaphela” belong to the Kiki-Murray taxi association
which is affiliated to CATA.
The
drivers justify their existence by arguing that the law (licensing) should not
apply to them as they only transport people inside the townships and do not
leave the township.
The
Committee heard evidence that some of the established taxi operators own
“amaphela” taxis. The potential for
conflict is significantly increased as “amaphela” taxis have now found people
who are organising the owners into two camps, Kiki and
2.6
GOLDEN ARROW BUS SERVICES (GABS)
Golden
Arrow Bus Services (GABS) provides the only subsidised road based public
transport services in the
GABS
presently operate on an interim contract since the Provincial Department of
Transport has not finalised its public transport restructuring programme. According to the National Land Transport
Transition Act 22 of 2000, the provincial and metropolitan governments need to
develop various public transport plans including the rationalisation plan which
is aimed at government subsidised services.
These plans should serve as the basis for the issuing of contracts by
government. Part of the governments’
role is to decide on whether to go for tendered or negotiated contracts. The provincial and metro governments have
not finalised the approach, hence GABS still operates on an interim contract,
in terms whereof the service provider operates on a month to month basis with
no long term agreement.
Profile of Golden Arrow Bus Services
·
There are
932 vehicles in the bus fleet and a peak of 844 buses operating from
Arrowgate, Phillipi, Tollgate, Eastgate, Simon’s Town and Atlantis;
·
5 836 departures per day;
·
51,3 million passengers journey per year;
·
900 routes operated;
·
Average trip length of 25,4 km;
·
Average distance between stops is 750 m;
·
202 600 passengers transported each working day;
·
163,7 million spent on supplies and services per
year;
·
More than 209,7 million per year spent on wage and
salary bill;
·
23,8 million litres of diesel used per year, and
·
2 332 employees.
2.7 Metrorail
Metrorail is a division of
Transnet which is located under the National Department of Public
Enterprise. It is the only service
provider contracted to operate commuter rail in the
Metrorail operates four
major lines from
·
Simonstown;
·
Khayelitsha;
·
·
Stellenbosch.
In the past few years
Metrorail was affected by the increase of violence in trains. Commuters were robbed, stabbed or thrown out
of windows of moving trains. This
problem resulted in Metrorail taking various steps to address security in
trains. Some of the steps included the
call for the re-introduction of railway police that will focus on the safety of
commuters. Others included the beefing
up of security at stations and placing of cameras in strategic areas so as to
be able to track the movement of offenders.
Even though these measures have not resulted in the total eradication of
violence in trains, they did assist in the reduction of crime on commuter
trains.
3. INSTITUTIONS
3.1
WESTERN CAPE
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT AND PUBLIC WORKS
The
Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works has a Public Transport
Branch that is responsible for the development, management and implementation
of public transport policy, legislation and regulations.
The Public Transport Branch has the following Directorates:
·
Empowerment and Institutional Management;
·
Planning and Contracts;
·
Provincial Transport Registrar;
·
Regulation and Control, and
·
Safety and Compliance.
The Public Transport Branch aims to deliver a safe,
affordable, reliable and accessible public transport system. It also aims to provide a quality public
transport infrastructure.
The
Branch is directly responsible for:
·
The transformation of the minibus taxi
industry;.
·
Changing interim contracts to scheduled
contracts to get rid of destructive competition on routes, and.
·
Managing the Provincial Operating License
Board..
The Empowerment and Institutional
Management Directorate is responsible for establishing and maintaining acceptable forums for
the industry and for initiating, negotiating and formalizing all agreements
with the different modes of public transport.
All this is aimed at enabling the industry to provide a high quality and
user friendly public transport service.
The Planning and Contracts
Directorate is
responsible for managing public transport planning in terms of legislation,
infrastructure and operations. It is
also responsible for managing transport contracts.
The Regulation and Control
Directorate renders
administrative support to the Provincial Operating License Board and Transport
Registrar.
The Safety and Compliance Directorate is responsible for:
·
Ensuring that the public transport industry
implements government's public transport plans;
·
Minimizing illegal transportation;
·
Taking active steps to improve the safety of
passengers and commuters, and
·
Managing vehicle impounding facilities.
3.2
Provincial OperatinG Licensing Board (POLB)
The
Western Cape Provincial Operating Licensing Board is a statutory institution
established by the Minister in terms of Section 30 of the National Land
Transport Transition Act 22 of 2000.
Sect 30 (1) of the NLTTA provides:
“ … every MEC must establish a board for the province
and appoint fit and proper persons as members who are characterised by their
independence, impartiality and fairness and who further are suitable for
membership by reason of their understanding of and expertise in or knowledge of
the public transport industry”.
In
terms of Sect 30 (3) of the NLTTA the board’s main functions are to receive,
consider and decide on or otherwise dispose of licenses according to national
and provincial legislation.
The
Regulation and Control Directorate provides administrative support to the
Provincial Operating Licensing Board.
3.3 Provincial Taxi Registrar
The
Provincial Taxi Registrar is a statutory institution established by the
Minister in terms of Section 53 of the NLTTA.
Each province is required to set up a registrar’s office that will be
responsible for the registration of taxi associations, association members,
routes and vehicles.
The Registrar’s role is to
ensure that taxi associations meet the standards set up in the legislation for
registration. One of the most important
requirements for an association for provincial registration as an association,
is that it should have adopted a constitution that contains the basic provisions
set out in the provincial constitution.
The Registrar’s role is to provide the standard constitution to the taxi
industry, facilitate registration of associations and keep records of the
members of the associations.
The
Registrar is also required by law to register route based taxi associations.
She/he is also required to monitor and acquire information with regard to
compliance or non-compliance by taxi associations with the standard
constitution and the Code of Conduct.
The
Minister, in consultation with the Registrar, may appoint a panel of assessors
to assist the Registrar in executing his/her duties as set out in the
NLTTA. One of the assessors’ roles is to advise and make recommendations to the Registrar on
issues relating to the taxi industry.
3.4 City of
The
City of
The
POLB must notify the City within 30 days after receiving an application. The
City has 30 days to comment on the applications received from the Licensing
Board.
The City is expected to
comment on the applications with having due regard to transport plans prepared
for the area. The POLB is bound by the
recommendations of City when it comes to refusal of permits, renewals etc.
The City investigates the
routes and makes a recommendation as to whether they are overtraded.
The City conducts its own research on the status of every route and the
maximum permissible amount of taxis that could be allowed on specific
routes. The POLB after deliberating on
the recommendations from the City will either accept or ignore the
recommendations.
4. LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
As with all areas of public
transport, there are a number of law enforcement agencies that are responsible
for the policing of public transport especially in the minibus taxi
industry. They include the South
African Police Services, the City Police, the Provincial and Local Traffic
Police. The Department of Justice’s
National Prosecuting Authority is responsible for the prosecution of operators
who commit crime by breaking the laws that are meant to be observed by the
industry. Every department has a
different role to play and there is integrated planning for each of the
institutions that are involved in the policing function.
The
National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has an intelligence gathering role and
performs threat analyses on government programmes with respect to the minibus
taxi industry.
4.1 WESTERN CAPE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY SAFETY
The Western Cape Department
of Community Safety (DOCS) is responsible
for
the civilian oversight of policing in the Province. It has a relationship with the Provincial
Department of Transport and Public Works in that it is responsible for
provincial traffic control. The
department also has a project that is designed to provide safety on trains and
at railway stations. The Bambanani
campaign provides security at railway interchanges across the
Furthermore,
the Department of Transport and Public Works pays for the deployment of 692
Bambanani volunteers at 42 railway stations. The department is not directly involved in the minibus taxi industry
except for coordinating law enforcement agencies with respect to investigation
of criminal activity. The Minister of Community Safety has an oversight role with respect to
the operational side of the investigations.
In the
4.2 SAPS
In
terms of the South African Police Services Act 68 of 1995, the South African
Police Services (SAPS) is charged with crime prevention and law
enforcement. It has the responsibility
of making sure that all the laws relating to the minibus taxi industry are
observed. It investigates instances of
criminality and also patrols taxi ranks when there are problems relating to
violence. SAPS established a taxi
violence investigation unit during the early 1990’s. They
have subsequently dissolved this and other specialised units.
Most of the investigators
involved in investigating some of the incidents of taxi conflicts have been
drawn from the Serious Violent Crimes Unit, and SAPS have been responsible for
all of the investigations relating to taxi hit squads during all the taxi
related violence incidents.
4.3 PROVINCIAL Traffic Police
Provincial traffic policing is a
competency of the Provincial Traffic Department. They are part of the Department of Community
Safety.
The provincial traffic
police perform their mandate in terms of the National Land Transport Transition
Act, 22 of 2000 (NLTTA). Their core function is to address traffic
violations in terms of the National Road Traffic Act, 93 of 1996 and the
NLTTA. They have twelve Traffic Centres
and two Operational Centres located in Brackenfell and Somerset West. They operate and work with the local
authority and SAPS when taxis need to be impounded. A new taxi pound was opened at Ndabeni on
4.4 CITY OF
The Traffic Police is located in the
office of the Chief Operations Directorate.
They are deemed to be the lead agency and are located in the Chief
Operations Officer Directorate. Their
role is to prevent and reduce traffic crimes, to check for moving violations,
to perform specialist functions with respect to the operating licenses of
minibus taxis, the enforcement of bye-laws and the enforcement of operating
licenses and routes. They issue between
900 and 1400 fines per month.
There
are 450 traffic officers and 450 law enforcement officers, of which 28 have
been dedicated to public transport which includes goods, commercial vehicles,
minibus, sedan taxis and courier vehicles.
Statistics indicate that they deal
with between 2 - 300 complaints against minibus taxis per week. They have 4253
registered taxis on the databases and 3214 illegal or unregistered taxis.
4.5 City Police
The City Police were
established in terms of the South African Police Service Act 68 of 1995 (as
amended). There are currently about 800 members of the City
Police who have responsibility for the following areas:
1)
Traffic Violations;
2) Bye-Law
enforcement;
3) Crime
Prevention, and
4) Protection of
Council property.
The
City Police are responsible for playing a support role in policing
operations. They do not however have an
investigative capacity and do not become involved in police investigations,
although they share intelligence on crime hotspots with SAPS.
4.6 CITY LAW ENFORCEMENT
OFFICERS
The
City employs approximately 400 law enforcement officers who have the
responsibility of protecting council property like electrical sub-stations,
council buildings and public facilities such as civic centres. This should include taxi ranks.
5. OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT
AGENCIES
There
are other law enforcement agencies whose functions impact on the enforcement of
laws in the taxi industry. The National Prosecuting Authority and the
National Intelligence Agency are two such institutions that play a role in
dealing with offenders in the Taxi Industry.
5.1
THE NATIONAL PROSECUTING AUTHORITY (NPA)
The
National Prosecuting Authority reports directly to the Minister of Justice and
Constitutional Development. The NPA was established in terms of the
National Prosecuting Authority Act 32 of 1998.
The role and functions of the NPA are to prosecute offenders who commit
crimes. The NPA consists of the
following arms:
For
the purposes of investigating taxi related crimes, the Directorate of Public
Prosecutions, the Directorate of Special Operations (the Scorpions) and the
Asset Forfeiture Units are relevant.
The
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is responsible for the prosecution of
persons who commit crime. They have been
at the forefront of prosecuting individuals who committed violent crimes in the
taxi industry. They are currently
continuing investigations around specific incidents with a view to prosecuting
those who are responsible for crime in the minibus taxi industry.
5.2 THE
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NIA)
In
terms of the Intelligence Services Act 38 of 1994, NIA is charged with domestic
intelligence and with the duty of gathering information where there is a threat
to the state. NIA is responsible for
the protection of the state and its citizen’s against domestic threats. It identifies possible threats to national
security and has identified the instability in the taxi industry as such a
threat.
NIA has stated that an
early warning system in the taxi industry is essential to prepare government,
and law enforcement agencies in particular, for intervention.
6. OTHER STAKEHOLDERS
During the course of its investigations, the Committee heard evidence
from organised labour, organised business, community development forums, civic
associations, political parties and private individuals.
6.1 ORGANISED BUSINESS
Organised business is
represented by the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry. They have more than 4600 members operating in
the region. To date, they collectively
account for 200 000 jobs in the formal and informal sector of the economy.
In
the
A
stable and a conflict-free minibus taxi industry is good for business. Conflicts and instability in the minibus taxi
industry cause disruptions. Disruptions
affect transportation of workers to and from work. This inevitably affects business planning,
productivity and so on, since business cannot function well in an environment
attended by unpredictability. This in turn leads to conflict between labour and management. The
productivity of business is affected in the process and this impacts on
delivery and ultimately on the business planning process. Business functions in an area of
predictability and therefore cannot afford to function optimally in an
uncertain environment.
6.2 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
FORUMS
There
are a number of community development associations that have a stake and
interest in the minibus taxi industry.
Not for lack of trying, the Committee has regrettably not had any
significant submissions from any community development forums except from that
of Khayelitsha, YEK’UMUNYU.
YEK’UMUNYU
(stop the greed) organisation made a presentation to the Committee and
suggested that taxi owners should be in a position to tender for road contracts
and other government tenders. They also
suggested that taxi owners should become owners of petrol service stations.
6.3 CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS
No evidence was presented
to the Committee by Civic Associations.
Well known civic associations
such as the South African National Civics Association (SANCO) presented no
evidence to the Committee despite calls on them to do so. The exception was SANCO Du Noon, who
represented the Du Noon Taxi Association in a particular dispute in the
Milnerton / Blaauwberg area. The fact that no other submissions were received
leaves a gap. In the opinion of the
Committee, conflict and instability in the minibus taxi industry directly
affect the community, and the absence of its direct voice on this subject is
extremely regrettable.
6.4 POLITICAL PARTIES
Several
letters were written to all the political parties in the Provincial Legislature
to make written submissions to the Committee.
None of the political parties responded, except an individual member of
the Democratic Alliance, Mr Robin Carlisle.
It
is an indictment on the political parties that none of them elected to provide
the Committee with any submission, when they are the first to complain about
the violence that has been generated as a result of taxi violence. As self-proclaimed “representatives” of the
people, and as lawmakers, one would have expected them to have taken advantage
of the existence of the Committee to make their views and policies known on
this important subject.
The ruling party is the
African National Congress, in alliance with the New National Party. Other parties that are represented in the
Provincial Legislature are:
None
of these parties, as already stated made any submissions to the Committee with
the exception of the Democratic Alliance, despite repeated attempts and
requests for them to make submissions.
Only the New National Party responded.
It indicated that they did not have anyone who has information on the
taxi industry. They therefore elected
not to make any submissions to the Committee.
6.5 INDIVIDUALS
Several individuals made
submissions. Some gave evidence before
the Committee. Their evidence has been
valuable in reasonably shaping our view that certain individuals reasonably may
be found to be behind the violent incidents in the industry.
In total, we have seen 20
individuals in private and public hearings.
6.6 ORGANISED LABOUR
Organised Labour, COSATU
and NACTU, participated and gave evidence to the Committee. COSATU has an affiliate, called the South African Transport and Workers
Union that operates in the Taxi Industry. They are trying to recruit taxi
drivers, but have not been successful.
NACTU also has an affiliate called Transport and Omnibus Workers Union
COSATU
stated that they view taxis as feeders to the line haul and did not see the
possibility of taxis having multiple routes.
They argued that there were taxi owners who have many taxis and exploit
drivers. They believed that there should
be one taxi, one owner and that there has
not been transparency in the industry.
They also stated that operators and drivers were not able to operate
their taxis as small businesses, and that the industry is run by a taxi mafia
who use violent tactics against their competition. This should cease if there is to be any
meaningful progress.
NACTU agreed that there was
violence in the industry and stated that the Minister for Transport had clearly
avoided meeting with them. The Minister
had clearly preferred to meet with COSATU instead. They also indicated that they have affiliates
in the transport sector that have been attacked and killed by taxi operators.
6.7 NGOs
The
U-Managing Conflict Organisation (UMAC) organisation was the only
non-governmental organisation that gave evidence before the Committee. UMAC is
a conflict management agency that has been involved in mediating conflict
between the taxis for over ten years.
It has managed to
successfully broker peace in some of the taxi wars on the
7. THE PROCESS
Members
of the public and identified stakeholders provided evidence before the
Committee.
It met with, and received
confidential briefings from organisations involved in law enforcement, private
individuals who had interests in the industry and members of taxi associations.
The purpose of the
confidential briefings was to brief the stakeholders what was expected from
them, and also to get a sense what their expectations were. A second round of consultative sessions was
held with stakeholders in the form of an imbizo where the majority of stakeholders
and role-players attended.
The Committee always
endeavoured to have the hearings in public, except where to do so could
jeopardize the safety of its witnesses, in which case the hearings were held in
camera.
The Committee was expecting
that members of civil society and members of the public would participate in
the hearings. The open public hearings
were attended by members of the media.
7.1 THOSE WHO ACTUALLY
PARTICIPATED
Not
everyone that was expected to attend did so.
There was a very poor showing by a number of key stakeholders to the
process. The Committee was disappointed
that no commuter groups chose to give evidence before the Committee.
A
number of stakeholders did however choose to attend. The following table is an indication of the
stakeholders that chose to attend the hearings and present the Committee with
evidence:
DATE
|
NAME &
SURNAME
|
ORGANISATION |
PUB / PRIV
|
|
30 May 2005 |
Stakeholders
imbizo |
|
Public |
|
|
|
UDM |
Public |
|
|
|
POLB |
Public |
|
|
|
NPA |
Public |
|
|
|
NIA |
Public |
|
|
|
Community Safety
Dept |
Public |
|
|
|
SANCO |
Public |
|
|
|
Transport Dept |
Public |
|
|
|
NACTU |
Public |
|
|
|
|
Public |
|
|
|
City of |
Public |
|
|
|
Golden Arrow Bus
Service |
Public |
|
|
|
Metrorail |
Public |
|
|
|
Yek’ Umunyu |
Public |
|
|
|
Public Transport
Interchange |
Public |
|
|
|
SAPS |
Public |
|
|
|
CATA |
Public |
|
|
|
UTA Blaauwberg |
Public |
|
|
|
DCS |
Public |
|
|
|
BELLTA |
Public |
|
|
|
CATA Eyona |
Public |
|
|
|
CODETA |
Public |
|
|
|
CATA Langa |
Public |
|
|
|
|
Public |
|
|
CATA EYONA |
CATA Eyona |
Public |
|
|
|
CATA Langa |
Public |
|
|
Fatgie Davids Basil Alcock |
POLB |
Public |
|
|
Fezile Mbambo |
Taxi Register |
Public |
|
|
Merrington |
City Traffic
Police |
Public |
|
|
B. Knoll |
City Police |
Public |
|
|
H. F. Malgas |
Provincial
Traffic Police |
Public |
|
|
Victor Thomas |
SNKTA |
Public |
|
|
|
CODETA |
Public |
|
|
Mr. B. Nagel |
WCPTC |
Public |
|
|
Provincial
Commissioner Mzwandile Petros |
SAPS |
|
|
|
Donavan Nel |
NIA |
|
|
|
D. Jaxa |
BELTA CATA |
Public |
|
|
Martin Makasi Ntuthu Mtwana |
UMAC |
Public |
|
|
T. Franks |
NACTU |
Public |
|
|
M. Madolo |
SANCO |
Public |
|
|
Howard Ngcobo |
D.T.A. |
Public |
|
|
CODETA |
CODETA |
Public |
|
|
Don Pasqualie Nick Cronje |
COSATU GABS |
Public |
|
|
Duma Jaxa |
BELTA CATA |
Public |
|
|
N. Mbona |
BLOEWATA |
|
|
|
Mike Skrikker |
City Council |
|
|
|
Adv. Sanet van
Aarde |
Forensic Audit |
|
|
|
Sandra van Dalen |
City Council |
|
|
|
Adv. Bridgeman |
|
|
|
|
Scorpions |
|
Public |
|
|
Mr. Davids |
O. Licensing
Board |
Public |
|
|
Mr. Bomseni |
|
Public |
|
|
Mr. Alcock |
POLB |
Public |
|
|
Mr. T. Manyathi |
Transport &
P/works |
Public |
|
|
Special Hearing |
CATA Seawater |
|
|
|
|
Inter-townships |
|
|
|
|
Eyona |
|
|
|
Special Hearing |
CATA Seawater |
|
|
|
|
Inter-townships |
|
|
|
|
Eyona |
|
|
|
Maseti &
Jaxa |
CATA Mother body |
|
|
|
Andre Harrison |
Metrorail |
Public |
|
|
Debbie Miller |
Human rights NGO |
|
|
|
Sammy Tizora |
Interchange
manager |
Public |
|
|
CATA Seawater |
CATA Seawater |
|
|
|
CATA Langa |
CATA Langa |
|
|
|
W. Mtule |
CATA |
|
|
|
F. Ndabeni |
CATA |
|
|
|
J. Matinisi |
Inter-township |
|
|
|
K. Sithebile |
CATA Eyona |
|
7.2 WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS
The
Committee received written submissions from most of the persons who testified
before it. We did not receive, however,
and despite request, submissions from the Provincial Registrar, the POLB and
the Taxi Association CATA. We also
received confidential submissions from individuals, organisations and law
enforcement authorities.
The Committee also received
submissions from attorneys, police, the National Intelligence Agency, Scorpions
and individual institutions.
8. SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE
GATHERED
The
following chapters are a summary of evidence presented by people in prisons,
people who gave testimony in public and private hearings. It also includes evidence presented to the
Committee from special hearings that were called. We wish to point out that the evidence that
the Committee has gathered is not prosecution ready evidence. However, we are confident that we have
gathered evidence that forms a good basis for further more intensive
investigations. Time and capacity
constraints made it impossible for the Committee to do more than it did. However, there is enough credible
information gathered that justifies further intensive investigations.
The
Committee has compiled a confidential annexe that contains a number of names
about whom allegations have been made.
The annexe gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that the individuals
mentioned may have committed serious crimes that warrant further investigations
that should lead to prosecutions. This annexe, sealed, will be handed to the
Premier, and it will be up to him to deal with it as he deems fit.
8.1
EVIDENCE
FROM PEOPLE IN DETENTION
During the
initial stages of the investigation, it came to the Committee’s attention that
there were people in detention who could assist the Committee. The Committee made appropriate arrangements
with the Department of Correctional Services to conduct interviews with these
individuals. This was not only because
the Committee members wanted to get an in depth understanding of the industry
but also because the people behind bars wanted to expose the king pins or
warlords responsible for the instability and conflict in the minibus taxi
industry.
8.1.1 Perpetrators of violence in the taxi
industry
From the evidence gathered the Committee established
that there is a culture of gangsterism in the minibus taxi industry. The Committee heard evidence that during the
eighties gangsters such as the Big Eight and “OnoBalaclava” ruled the
industry. During 2000/1, the Ten-Ten
gang emerged and was responsible for attacks on Golden Arrow Bus Services. These gangs, amongst other acts, terrorized
communities, committed armed robberies and killed people considered to be
enemies of their associations and/or the above-mentioned gangs.
It is evident from the information gathered from our
sources that sophisticated ganglords are in the top structures of the taxi
associations. Not all taxi operators are
members of these gangs. A few
individuals are warlords and they benefit from these taxi wars. These individuals are mostly feared and
their decisions become law and cannot be challenged. They literally run the taxi industry even
though some of them are not in the elected structures of the associations. We heard evidence of cases where an elected
chairperson would be forced to take orders from warlords, failing which his
life or that of his family would be at risk.
8.1.2 Rise to power
Most
of these warlords started as mere taxi drivers working for other operators and
they worked their way up by getting involved in the taxi wars. It is generally accepted in the industry that
those who have fought bravely during war, or have killed people, will be
feared, and that is a ticket to becoming a warlord. Members of the associations are forced to
take part in the wars, failing which, they will either not be allowed to load
their taxis at the ranks or face paying fines called fines for cowards. This was chiefly the work of the Big Eight
and the “OnoBalaclava” Gangs. This is a
form of extortion used by warlords to make sure that everyone becomes involved
in the war. Forcing new members to take
part in the elimination of unwanted enemies is also considered a form of
initiation. The money collected goes
into a war chest and is used to finance another war.
8.1.3 Hit-men (iimbovane)
Previous taxi wars were
characterized by the taxi owners physically taking part in the shootings. It is a recent development of the last nine
years that hit men were hired.
Hiring of hit-men, or commonly referred to as
“iimbovane” (ants) to eliminate unwanted enemies is common in both CATA and
CODETA. Warlords decide who is to be
eliminated and “iimbovane” are hired to do the job. Normally these hit-men are not members of the
association and they are in some instances accompanied by ordinary members of
the association who are still working their way up to identify and/or in some
cases assist in the killing of unwanted taxi operators. When arrested, the above-mentioned warlords
instruct members of the association to contribute money for bail and/or legal
fees for their attorneys. One of our
sources revealed that “imbovane” are paid up to R12 000.00 for a single killing
contract. There is information that the
war chest is also used to pay traditional healers’ bills.
Our sources also revealed specific individuals that
are directly involved in the hiring of “iimbovane”. Names of implicated persons from both
associations have been made available to this Committee.
Whilst Coloured members of these associations are
rarely involved in the planning and executing of attacks relating to taxi wars,
there is, however, evidence that vehicles that are used to transport
“iimbovane” to areas where they are supposed to commit the executions, are made
available by Coloured members.
From the evidence presented to the Committee,
“iimbovane” are people with strong military backgrounds. Some are former liberation movement and
Self-Defence Units cadres. This is clear
from the military precision with which the executions are planned and carried
out.
8.1.4 Collection of moneys from the ranks
Our sources also told us that there are monies that
are collected from ranks. The Committee
was told that, during the taxi wars, warlords would appoint people who would be
responsible for collecting money on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of every
week for the duration of the war from every member of the association.
During the taxi wars every taxi operator is expected
to contribute R100.00 on the above-mentioned days. This is a lot of money because if an
association has a thousand taxis, a R100 000.00 is collected each day when
money is collected. Some of these
mother body associations normally have more than a thousand taxis. This money also is never accounted for, not
only because taxi associations do not keep books of account but also because no
one is allowed to question how the money is spent.
This money is spent on inter alia the payment of “iimbovane”, traditional healers, bail,
legal fees, ammunition, corrupt law enforcement officials, and so on. The rest is utilized by warlords for their
own personal needs.
8.1.5 Collaboration with law enforcement
personnel
There is information suggesting that some of these
warlords have concluded illicit deals with corrupt law enforcement
officials. There are also allegations
that some of these warlords are police informers. There were situations where these police
turned a blind eye on illegal activities committed by these informers.
We
were informed that there were incidences where our sources and informers were
jointly involved in criminal activities where they used vehicles belonging to
the informers. These vehicles would be
confiscated and warlords would phone police officials and the cars would be
released without any further investigation being conducted.
Some interviews revealed that some police officers
wanted the taxi operators to buy them things (ranging from food to vehicles) in
exchange for arrangement of either bail or dismissal of the cases under
investigation.
The Committee was also told of an incident of a
gunfight between members of two associations.
The police arrived. There was a
car chase. Our sources drove into a taxi
rank and changed vehicles. On that day,
the police came to the rank and confiscated the vehicles which were allegedly
used in the incident. One of the
warlords phoned a specific police officer and immediately after the telephone
call our source was ordered by the warlord to go and pick the vehicle up at the
police station. There were neither
arrests nor prosecutions made in relation to the matter.
Concerns were raised about the manner in which certain
police officials handle evidence. One
allegation was that statements made to police officials on tapes were leaked to
the taxi operators, and tapes containing their evidence were played at taxi
ranks. According to our sources, the
only reasonable inference they could draw was that someone in the police
service deliberately leaked these tapes to the taxi operators.
8.1.6 The Motive
In all interviews with our sources, particularly those
serving jail sentences, they were asked about their motives for volunteering
information. Their stated motive for
talking with the Committee was that they wanted to expose the warlords. They told the Committee that they felt
betrayed by the leadership of the association.
They allege that immediately after their convictions, the associations
broke all ties with them and also took their taxis out of the industry. Some of these taxis were sold but they never
got the proceeds thereof.
8.2 Evidence
from public hearings
Provincial
Operating Licensing Board (POLB)
The
Provincial Operating License Board is meant to discharge its duties in terms of the NLTTA. The POLB is supported by an administrative
section. The Board is headed by Fatgie Davis and it is appointed by the
Minister for Transport. One of its main
functions is to receive applications for permits and decide on them in terms of
the NLTTA. According to the POLB, they
receive about 3500 applications per month.
There is a backlog with the current processing of applications at the
Provincial Operating Licensing Board.
The other process is the conversion of permits into operating
licenses. There are many operators who
operate without permits.
The administrative section
is headed by Basil Alcock and they are the support staff of the Board. Some of the problems they are faced with
include applications that were being lost, backlogs (in the region of 4000) and
staff being improperly trained. It was
found that the staff also lacked people’s skills. What exacerbates matters is that almost half
of the staff members are on fixed term contracts. There were allegations of corruption and
favouritism at the Board. Mr. Alcock
agreed that it was a problem which the Department of Transport needed to
address.
The
Provincial Transport Registrar’s (Mr. Fezile Mbambo) function is to receive
applications from the route based associations for the registration of the
members, their vehicles and their routes.
He has to see to it that registrations comply with the provisions of the
NLTTA. His other duties are to oversee
Annual General Meetings of Associations, in compliance with the Act. In our province there are 152 provisionally
registered associations and for them to be fully registered, all their members
would have to have operating licenses.
The Registrar told us that
some of the problems that he is encountering in his office is the fact that
these routes are not registered before they are handed over to the Board. Secondly assessors who have to verify routes
registered by associations and check compliance with policy, have up to now not
been appointed. The
The Registrar agreed that
situations such as what happened at the
The
City and Traffic Police were represented by Mr. Merrington and Mr. Knoll. The
Directorate of City Police within the City of
According
to their statistics there are 4253 legal taxis and 3214 illegal taxis within
the City of
Their
role and responsibility when it comes to enforcement is to prosecute offenders
for all types of offences, ranging from speeding to specialist functions
relating to taxi offences, for example, interpretation of licenses and
routes. On average they prosecute
between 900 and 1400 taxis per month. They admitted that when it comes to human
resources, they do not have the capacity to be proactive as they would have
liked to and that they are more of a reactive service than a proactive
one. This leads to the operators taking
law into their own hands. The formation
of a special taxi unit will alleviate the situation. They
also mentioned that there is no synergy between the different enforcement
agencies within local, provincial and national government.
Dealing
with the misperception that the ranks belong to the associations, they
advocated the idea that the City should assume management of the ranks. The
other issue that was mentioned was the issue of the sedan taxis that operate at
the townships commonly known as “amaphela”.
It is a well known fact that these vehicles are neither roadworthy nor
do they have permits. Even though this
is a disaster waiting to happen, there seems to be a lack of will from the
authorities to deal with the situation.
Provincial Traffic Police
Mr. Patrick Richard Curran
testified on behalf of the Provincial Traffic Police. They are responsible for
traffic law enforcement throughout the
Provincial Traffic Police
also admitted that they have a capacity problem when it comes to
enforcement. The routes that they are
responsible for are the highways, freeways and the national roads leading into
and from
Scottsdene
Northpine Kraaifontein Taxi Association (SNKTA)
This
Taxi Association is affiliated to CODETA and it was represented by Mr. Mervyn
Reginald Petersen and its legal representative Ms. Celeste Louise Catherine
Holmes. They operate from Kraaifontein, Northpine and Scottsdene.
As a result of the conflict
in Crossroads between the witdoeke and the comrades, some of the taxi operators
started to settle in the Bloekombos and Wallacedene communities . On
This
unresolved conflict provided the precursor for the recent conflict at the
The Taxi Council was
represented by Mr. Basil Nagel (Chairperson of the Council) and Mr. Paul
Browning (Advisor for SANTACO). SANTACO
was established in 1998 as a result of the recommendations flowing from the
National Taxi Task Team (NTTT) report.
Mr. Joe Mabaso was elected its first President. The Western Cape Provincial Taxi Council has
a total membership of 90. It has 18
regional councils and 152 primary associations.
The Council is of the opinion that they do not get recognition from the
Provincial Government which instead directly engages the so called “Mother
Bodies”. This is regrettable because the Council is the Government’s recognized
representative body for the taxi industry in the Province. The Memorandum of Understanding that was
signed between the Government and the Council has not been honoured by either
side. However, the Council is looking
forward to the day when the Provincial Government would work hand-in-glove with
the democratically elected representative body in the province, namely the
Western Cape Provincial Taxi Council.
The
Council’s view on the issue of the Board is that it is not working efficiently
and that it is offering poor quality of service to the operators. Both Nagel and Browning complained about
preferential treatment at the Operating Licensing Board. They also complained about the slow pace of
processing applications. They further accused the Board of just taking decisions
without consulting the relevant taxi associations.
They further testified
that, amongst other things, the Registrar was not appointed on a permanent
basis, the routes have not been assessed and associations have not complied
with registration – all factors that were bound to create instability and
conflict in the industry.
Nagel
criticised the Registrar, stating that he is failing to carry out his tasks as
stipulated in the National Land Transport Transitional Act, and that he
regularly involves himself in matters which are not part of his powers and
duties. Nagel added that only 40% of the
Associations did not hold annual general meetings and 60% did not submit
financial reports in 2004.
Explaining how the recent
bout of violence began at
South
African Police Services (SAPS)
The South African Police
Services was represented by the Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner,
Mzwandile Petros. In 2000 when there
was a war between the taxi and bus industry, the National Commissioner of the
South African Police Service, Jackie Selebi instructed that a provincial task
team investigate the conflict. The
mandate was actually fulfilled by
Allegations
of the law enforcement agencies doing nothing about acts of illegality as well
as police officials who have a vested interest in the industry were put to the
Provincial Commissioner. There were
also allegations that the police do not have capacity to deal with the
situation. In addition, there were
allegations of favouritism where SAPS were seen to be siding with one
association against the other. With
regards to the issue of police officials who are involved in taxi related
criminal activities, the Commissioner stated that there was little evidence of
this. He added that there were
regulations that prohibited police officers from owning taxis.
Commissioner Petros further
testified that the police have identified the conflict to be between CATA and
CODETA. The recent conflict has erupted
because of the decision by CODETA to bypass the Bellville Interchange and
proceed straight to
In
conclusion, the Commissioner stressed that as long as there is money to be made
in the taxi industry, as long as the industry was not being effectively
regulated and the enforcement of the public transport regulations not being
effectively carried out, conflict will continue. He added that TRP in the minibus taxi
industry should also be finalized, and the implementation thereof hastened so
as to stabilize the minibus taxi transport in the province.
National
Intelligence Agency (NIA)
NIA
was represented by Mr. Nel. In
introducing his evidence, Mr Nel indicated that the minibus taxis were the most
used form of public transport. The remainder of his evidence can be summarised
as appears below. The unfortunate part
was that this industry is marred by conflict.
This can be associated with the unregulated environment from which the
industry originates. The government has
taken a number of policy decisions, some of which yielded the expected results
whilst others have been exploited by the industry players. For instance the TRP which is aimed at
addressing the problems in the industry.
However, issues generally raised by the industry against this process is
the question of profitability to taxi owners, affordability to commuters,
possible job losses and interference of government in the affairs of the taxi
industry through the introduction of regulations.
Lack
of feedback from WCPTC and provincial government to the taxi operators has
caused perceptions and discontent over the TRP. The majority of operators obtain information
on TRP from their fellow operators. As a
result there is lack of information on the role that TRP will play in the
restructuring of the taxi industry.
Mr
Nel said that the Western Cape Provincial Taxi Council (WCPTC) was formed
through the government’s formalization process and thereafter Taxi Rank
Councils were established. He added
that in the recent taxi violence, government engaged taxi associations, with
limited involvement of the WCPTC.
Consequently the position of associations was enhanced. In addition, he said that operators now view
associations as capable of delivering more than the WCPTC.
With regard to the issue of
operating permits, Mr Nel said the National Minister of Transport has
proclaimed
NIA
recommended that Government should keep operators up to date on TRP
process. The system of allocation of
permits should be reviewed with a view to improve the turnaround time on
applications. Transport planning should form part of broader integrated
development plans. The Provincial
Department of Transport and Public Works, the Cape Town Unicity and the
Licensing Board should collectively include transport planning as part of
medium to long term development planning.
In
conclusion Mr. Nel stated that the instability in the taxi industry is a
product of a combination of factors, some of which can be resolved by
government. He emphasized that government processes should be streamlined to
facilitate operations in the industry.
If these are addressed, transgressions of the law could be addressed
effectively.
Scorpions
The Scorpions were
represented by Adv. Bruce Morrison. He
confirmed that the taxi industry is the only transport industry that is not
formally regulated by government. It
has largely been left to its own devices, much to the detriment of commuters
who are forced to rely on them for transport.
He
recommended that law enforcement agencies need to revisit historical taxi
violence cases, as many of the perpetrators of the old taxi conflict, CATA and
CODETA, still want to control the industry.
The alleged “warlords” need to be
identified, investigated and convicted.
Taxi owners or drivers found guilty of serious criminal offences need to
be blacklisted, and never be able to be in the industry again in any capacity.
The Scorpions said that they had received reports of
taxi associations recruiting people to cut the cables on Metrorail lines. The Scorpions added that cutting the cables
disrupts the train services. This
compels the commuters to rely on taxis for transport to and from work.
Adv.
Morrison explained that the
Shortly
before he was murdered Mr Khupiso (former Chairman of LAGUNYA) testified before
the Committee. He was accompanied by
his friend Advocate Murray Bridgman. The
first problem he highlighted was the issue of the Operating Licensing
Board. There is a major dissatisfaction
with the perceived methods by which permits are granted. This has led to the increase in the number of
illegal taxis and the belief that ignoring the law is justified. He stated that the Chairperson of the Board
should be taken to task with regards to the turn around time and that he should
be told to put his house in order as he has the power to do so.
In
dealing with the issue of the so called mother bodies, CATA and CODETA, he said
that these associations should not be recognized as they are run as mafia
organizations. These associations have
no constitution and they operate according to their own rules. They have access to vast sums of money. Their leaders often enrich themselves at the
expense of the members. These leaders
collect money from the members but they never account for how it is spent. These leaders are also regarded as
responsible for organizing the hiring of assassins and the vehicles they use.
He
also mentioned that certain taxi operators whom he named were also involved in
criminal activities. A large number of
taxis operating from the ranks were stolen vehicles. These vehicles were often hijacked and
nothing was done in the associations to stop this. Thieves were often seen as heroes, the
providers of cheap vehicles. The thieves
used the taxi industry as cover and relied on the friendship of those who buy
their vehicles to protect them. The CATA
and CODETA leadership also used these criminals. The members of the South African Police
Services were well aware of these activities.
Mr Khupiso mentioned that he had no doubt that there was corruption
within the Police Services, but it was difficult to prove. He ended by saying a new attitude by the
taxi industry was required. He believes
that the majority of people involved in the taxi industry were good people who,
given the chance, would be law abiding citizens. They were quite eager to transform the
industry into a properly run business with credible leadership.
Congress
of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
The
federation was represented by Mr. Don Jacques Pasquallie, a member of the
Provincial Executive Committee of COSATU Western Cape. He testified that COSATU had been advocating
for a need for a comprehensive transport plan which must be developed by a
Metropolitan transport authority that must be urgently set up by local
authority and the provincial Government. In this plan the role of the taxis
would be that of a feeder. For an
example people in Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain would be driven to a
particular train or bus line and that they would be transported from
Khayelitsha or Mitchell’s Plain to Brackenfell. Seeing that taxis would not be the primary
mode of transport they would not need to
be subsidized. What they were also
advocating was that there should be a limit to the number of taxis that an
owner can have. COSATU advocates the
policy of one owner one taxi.
Golden
Arrow Bus Services (GABS)
GABS
was represented by Mr. Nicholaas Stephanus Cronje (Chief Executive
Officer). According to him there are
three main issues that contribute to the instability in the taxi industry. The first point relates to the
maladministration of the Operating Licensing Board where operators wait for
years to get their operating licenses.
Secondly there was confusion as to who has to enforce the law and there
were inconsistencies in the enforcement of the law. Thirdly, he claimed that most routes are
overtraded.
Mr Cronje advocated the use
of transport plans in managing the developments of shopping centres.
Metrorail
Metrorail is a division of
Transnet Ltd, a state owned enterprise.
The responsible Ministry that oversees commuter rail transport is the
Department of Transport. Currently, in
line with the Cabinet’s decision and as announced by the Minister of Transport,
Metrorail and the South African Rail Commuter Corporation Ltd (SARCC) are in
the process of consolidating into a single passenger rail entity under the
Department of Transport.
In these proceedings
Metrorail was represented by Mr. Andre Harrison (Regional Manager) and Mr.
Stephens Ngobeni (Operational Manager).
Their evidence is summarised below.
What
Metrorail found out was that there were certain taxi associations who were
approaching members of a cable syndicate to cut Metrorail cables. The reason for this was to delay or sabotage
the train service with the purpose of cashing in on intended rail commuters who
would then be forced to utilize the services of the taxis. In some instances the cutting of cables was
done at points close to a spot where a number of taxis would assemble within a
short period of time to take advantage of the new business opportunity. Areas that were most targeted were Langa to
Kapteinsklip and Khayelitsha, as well as Bellville to
The
incidents of cable cuts created a huge delay on the train service to such an
extent that in certain instances commuters migrated from the rail to the
taxi. These delays had serious economic
consequences for the City of
In
conclusion the Metrorail officials emphasized that the lack of a transport plan
created uncertainty in the provision of public transport. The issuing of permits beyond the capacity
of the market to sustain a viable business on a particular route would in all
probability result in a level of competition that in turn might lead to battles
for market share and the accompanying violence. It was the Board’s responsibility to balance
supply and demand. In the absence of an
approved Public Transport Plan, this might not always be achieved.
National Department of Transport
The
Department was represented by its Deputy Director General, Mr. Lucky Montana
and he came to explain the roll-out of the TRP process. He acknowledged that the taxi industry plays
a very important role in the country’s public transport system. This was despite the fact that it was not
subsidized by Government as against the other key public transport modes.
According
to him the inability to recapitalize, lack of maintenance and self-regulation
are some of the causes of instability in the industry. The fact that the routes were over saturated
and the corruption that existed at the licensing authorities exacerbated the
problem. The government is aware that
the industry cannot recapitalize itself, hence the state of decay of the taxi
fleet in the country. The TRP seeks to
replace the current taxi fleet. It is
also a means towards formalizing and regulating the taxi industry. The emphasis is much more on road safety
regarding taxi vehicles. The technical specifications and design requirements
will include accessibility for people with special needs.
The conversions of Permits
to Operating Licenses as well as law enforcement are central to the roll out of
the TRP. Some of the money would go
towards enhancing the capacity of existing structures used by the provincial
government to enforce the law among taxi operators. The closing date of the conversion process
is
The
Department was represented by its head, Mr Thami Manyathi. He was accompanied by the Director
responsible for Planning, Mr. Osman. Mr.
Manyathi acknowledged that the Department has to improve customer service at
Goldbourn Centre. He made an example of
the good service that is being offered by the Revenue Services. He referred to the very much improved
customer service offered by SARS and which is non existent at Goldbourn Centre.
With
regards to the issue of lack of proper planning, Mr Manyathi admitted that when
it comes to property development, the issue of public transport happens as an
afterthought. In the case of
Mr.
Manyathi also touched on the issue of tendered contracts in the Province.
Currently the Department has an interim contract with Golden Arrow Bus
Services. It wants to move to tendered
or negotiated contracts which will make some room for other operators and in
that process it will be incorporating taxi operators. This is part of the Provincial Strategy
Infrastructure Plan.
Mr.
Manyathi informed that the programme intends to improve the safety of
operations, comfort to the users, and simultaneously improve affordability of
the programme through the issuing of a capital subsidy. The
department indicated that it intended to have a “bosberaad” and would invite
the operators so that it could take them through the preparations and
implementation of the recapitalization programme.
Democratic
This
was the only political organization that responded to our invitation to make
submissions to the Committee. It was
represented by its spokesperson on Transport, Mr. Robin Carlisle. A summary of his evidence follows below.
His
perspective was that the taxi industry was one of the most important forms of
transport. Proper regulation would
transform the industry, providing a predictable, safe and profitable
environment for the operators. On the
According
to the strategic plan of the Transport Department 2003/2004, 5063 of the 12663
taxis were illegal (40%). More
recently, Minister Skwatsha advised the legislature that there were 3000 to
4000 illegal operators.
Mr.
Carlisle concluded by saying that the failure to regulate arises from a lack of
political will to deal with the problem.
This was exacerbated by too frequent connections between politicians and
the industry.
Deborah Elizabeth Miller
Ms.
Miller is a Human Rights Activist and she was asked by the people of Du Noon to
speak on their behalf. She also assists
associations with permit applications and charges a fee for the service. Her rates range from R250 to R500 per
application, depending on the viability of the route.
The problem with Du Noon started with
the establishment of the Killarney Interchange. Taxi operators together with residents of Du
Noon established their own association, Du Noon Taxi Association (DTA) but
could not get permits. Ms. Miller
initially assisted them to hire permits from Mutual Taxi Association. This did not go down well with United Taxi
Association and Maitland Taxi Association and this resulted in violence. DTA then asked Miller to assist them so that
they could register to be on their own and they were ultimately registered by
Mr. Fezile Mbambo. This resulted in
this latest spate of violence in that area.
She
also voiced fears that the corrupt practices happening at Gouldburn Centre
might be “transferred” to the new satellite office in George. There were allegations that there was a board
member whose family was from that area and their permits were before the board.
The
City was represented by Mark Llewellyn Skriker, Sandra van Dalen (City’s
representative at the Operating Licensing Board) and Henri du Plessis. Their evidence can be summarised as appears
below. Their main role is to act as an
advisory body for the Board in the issuing of permits.
The
aim was to achieve a balance between public transport supply and demand that
was both effective and efficient. The
City’s mandate was to act in the interest of the commuter and also to act in
the interest of the existing operators. However, one of the criticisms levelled
against the Board by the City was that the Board does dispose of the
applications within the prescribed period of 90 days.
One
of the reasons for the conflict in the industry was that 70% of the routes were
overtraded, and yet the associations were still recruiting new members. The City was now preparing a document that
would go to all taxi associations telling them as to which routes were
overtraded. The radius permit was still
an issue although they were being converted to route based permits but that in
itself was a problem.
The
Operating Licensing Strategy of the City had been completed, but had not been
ratified as policy by the executive of the City. Mr. Skriker confirmed that the ideal
situation was that all the rank facilities should belong to the City. The reality was that certain associations act
as though they own the rank facilities, by prescribing who should operate in
those facilities.
The City admitted that they
did not have a strategy for public transport interchanges. This was a major problem because these
conflicts usually manifest themselves around the use of these interchanges. The reason why there was a conflict at
The
City also conveyed to us that they were introducing a system of rank tokens at
all the interchanges. At the moment
this system operates at the Cape Town Station Deck but they were planning to
expand it to all the other interchanges.
Rank tokens were affixed to the vehicle indicating that a particular vehicle
was allowed access for a particular facility.
There was also a problem of proliferation of informal traders at these
facilities which make these interchanges unmanageable.
CODETA
was formed in 1991 as an attempt to unify the taxi industry. It was an organization which grew out of the
peace process after the taxi war between the two associations LAGUNYA (Langa,
Guguletu and Nyanga) and WEBTA (Western Cape Black Taxi Association). During the hearings it was represented by its
Chairman, Mr.D.Speelman, Mr. Baba Jezile and Mr. Malanga Peter Thethani. Their evidence is summarised below.
The
conflict at Bellville started with the opening of the interchange in November
2002. To the surprise of CODETA they
found out that CATA had an A point in Bellville. The understanding was that no-one ought to
have an A point in Town. According to
CODETA’s understanding, A point was the origin and B point the
destination. CODETA insists that A
point should be in the townships or residential areas and B point in town,
suburbs or where people work. CODETA
was not aware that there were organisations like CATA that had A point in town,
suburbs or where people work.
When
the
They argued that law
enforcement personnel should take their rightful place and not allow other
operators to stop their taxis. They also
argued that they had enough resources to deal with fines that were issued by
authorities.
During the hearings CATA
was represented by its Chairman, Mr. Sipho Alfred Maseti. His testimony is summarised below.
Due to the abuse of power and misappropriation of
funds by the CODETA leadership, former WEBTA members broke away to form a new
organization called CATA. It was
launched at NY 49 stadium, Guguletu, in September 1994. CATA was of the view that CODETA was
politically aligned to the ANC and the perception was that they were getting
more audience from the Provincial Government.
CATA said that CODETA was using ex-SDU members as their hitmen in the
taxi conflict.
CATA
does not believe that the Western Cape Provincial Taxi Council serves the
interest of the taxi industry.
According to CATA, the WCPTC was taking them nowhere. Even during the recent conflicts, WCPTC
never played any role in resolving the dispute. The representivity in the Council was not
reflective of the demographics of operators in the Province. The Council does not take care of any
grievances coming from the African operators, they claimed.
8.3 Evidence
from private hearings
The
Committee received relatively good responses in its request that interested
parties should make both oral and written submissions.
Witnesses who came to give evidence in private
hearings have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Provincial Operating
Licensing Board (POLB). The following
allegations were made against the administration of the POLB:
a)
unreasonable and long turnaround time for applications;
b)
employment of not only temporary but also incompetent staff;
c)
corruption among staff members including senior staff members;
d)
unreliability of their data capturing systems;
e)
nepotism;
f)
unprofessional manner in which applications are handled, and
g)
lack of confidentiality of applications.
The following allegations were made against the
members of the Board:
a)
lack of impartiality on the part of the Board ;
b)
licenses not granted even in deserving cases;.
c)
inconsistency in Board decisions;
d)
corruption amongst Board members;
e)
unnecessary postponement of applications;
f)
issuing of licenses even in respect of routes that are over traded, and
g)
Issuing of licenses in respect of non-existent routes.
The following allegations were made against the office
of the Registrar:
a)
lack of consultation with associations on the part of the Registrar;
b)
unreasonably long turnaround times for registration of associations;
c)
inability to respond to complaints from associations, and
d)
lack of research on the status of routes.
There were also allegations that associations have
influence over individuals in the Board.
It was alleged that associations corrupt Board members to get licenses
issued even in areas where routes were either over traded or unregistered. During the recent conflict, both CODETA and
CATA had individuals who claimed they had permits that allowed them to operate
the Cape Gate route, although the route was not registered under any of the
associations.
There were allegations that some senior members of the
POLB ordered their subordinates to expedite certain applications belonging to
certain consultants. There were also
allegations that the working relationship amongst the two arms of the OLB was
not a healthy one.
It was generally felt by witnesses that unless the
POLB was reengineered, there would be no peace in the minibus taxi
industry. A practical example was the
fact that it took long to process applications. This led to operators taking to the route
illegally while waiting for their applications to be processed. This in turn sometimes led to violence. Our sources were however, of the opinion
that these problems were not insurmountable and that the solution was in the
government’s urgent intervention in the form of restructuring the POLB.
The City of
They also alleged that the City’s officials failed to
impartially mediate disputes between associations.
There was a further allegation that objections by the
City at the Board’s hearings were based on racial discrimination. It was alleged that the City only objects
where the applicant was a black person, but in cases of Golden Arrow Bus
Services there was no objection from the City.
Operators were of the opinion that the tragedy at
Most organizations and individuals felt that the taxi
industry was completely unregulated despite numerous laws that were recently
passed. Operators were of the opinion
that the government was not in control of the industry. Operators felt that it was useless to pass
laws if there were no measures to enforce those laws. According to them, the government was unable
to deal effectively with the issue of illegal operators and some associations
had taken the law into their own hands by patrolling routes and this led to
conflict among associations. Operators
felt that the government must assume its roles and responsibilities relating to
law enforcement.
Evidence placed before the Committee indicates that
the recapitalisation programme was either not well work-shopped or too
complicated for the operators to understand.
However operators insisted that the former and not the latter was the
reason why the program was foreign to them.
They alleged that there was no clear communication between them and the
government despite the existence of the taxi council.
Another general feeling among operators was that
recapitalisation was taking time to be implemented. In the meantime they were not informed of
progress made. There was also a general
fear among most operators that they were going to lose their taxis and/or
permits. They felt that the scrapping
allowance was little in that it was only enough to deposit a minibus and they
doubted whether they would be able to service their installments and at the
same time make a living out of the business.
It is fair to conclude, after hearing all these
submissions from the operators that they are willing to work hand in hand with
the government, but that they want to be actively involved in the
implementation of the program.
Inadequate law enforcement was one of the concerns
that was raised in private hearings.
Witnesses said that this did not only make the industry an unsafe place
but also made it easy for the warlords to continue undermining the rule of
law.
There were allegations that police took sides during
the taxi wars and that in some instances, matters reported to the police were
not investigated. The feeling was that
there were certain police officials that had an interest in the industry, even
though no one testified that there were police officers that owned taxis during
the private hearings.
There were also concerns that in the industry threats
were not taken seriously even when they had been reported to the authorities
responsible for law enforcement. We
heard testimony of instances where some people had made threats to kill others
and indeed those threatened operators were killed.
Serious concerns were raised with regard to the
Western Cape Provincial Taxi Council’s representation. A general feeling was that members of this
council were not doing their work. Once
they had been elected they did not only distance themselves from the ordinary
peoples but also failed to convey their constituency’s grievances to the
government. It was also alleged that
these members attended government conferences and workshops and failed to
report back to the masses.
Another concern was representivity in the
Council. There was a general feeling
that the membership of this council was not a true reflection of the minibus
taxi industry in the
All regions were allowed to elect two members into the
Council irrespective of their size. A
comparative example given to the Committee was that of Khayelitsha, which represents more than one
thousand taxi operators, and associations in the
It appeared that most of the associations in the
industry have lost confidence in the Council.
This was clearly demonstrated by the fact that associations would rather
deal with “mother bodies” rather than the Council. It was also said that the Council failed to
deal with issues involving disputes among associations despite the fact that it
had a component that was supposed to deal with conflicts in the taxi industry.
8.4 Evidence
from special hearings
The
Committee was asked to resolve an intra association conflict that involved CATA
affiliates. During these hearings the Inter-township Taxi
Association was represented by Johnson Matinisi, Stanford Makhuleni, Michael
Dalasile and Edward Mayiya. Seawater
on the other side had a legal representative, Attorney William Booth. The Inter-township Taxi Association was
initially affiliated to CODETA but now they are part of CATA. This particular conflict started around May
2003 when the Inter-township operators were chased away from the Nyanga
rank. They were chased away by Seawater
and the reasons given were that since the establishment of the Langa Forum,
Langa operators were chased away from other townships. Mr.
Booth advanced an argument that there were Seawater operators who had permits
to operate between Nyanga and Langa but were prevented from picking up
passengers from the Langa rank.
Some
of the Committee members then suggested that Mr. Matinisi and Mr Khumalo should
go and speak to their members to see if they could not resolve the situation
amicably. A week later Dan Khumalo from
Seawater made a proposal that they were prepared to accept Inter-township
members provided that those members who were chased away from Langa could also
be allowed back. His second proposal was
that the abovementioned operators be allowed to share the routes between
Nyanga, Rylands and Langa. Inter-township
operators were not entirely happy with these proposals. They wanted a list of
those operators who were going to be joining them. They also undertook to take
this back to their membership to obtain a mandate. We explained to these operators that it was
not actually the Committee’s mandate to resolve the conflict, but to find the
underlying reasons for the conflict. We
engaged them in this exercise because we saw that there was a possibility that
the matter could be resolved amicably.
CATA Eyona and Seawater Conflict
During
these hearings CATA Eyona was represented by . Kabelo Mdlankomo, Zolani
Mntuyedwa, Lulama Luhlapo. Seawater on
the other side was represented by William Booth. CATA Eyona was initially affiliated to CODETA
but now they were part of CATA. The problem started when Seawater operated on
CATA Eyona routes. CATA Eyona was also
chased away from Mowbray, Athlone and Killarney. This was reported to the “Mother Body” but
nothing was done. The matter even went
up to the High Court and the court ruled that operators should operate
according to their permits. Mr. Booth
then raised the same argument that there were Seawater operators who had
permits to operate from Eyona rank but were prevented from doing so by Eyona
operators.
The
Committee then suggested that Dan Khumalo and Mntuyedwa speak to their operators
so as to try and resolve the issue amicably.
This proposal from Seawater was that the two associations be merged into
one so that they could share the work.
This proposal was rejected by CATA Eyona stating that this was a plan by
Seawater to take over their routes and rank.
The Committee explained to the operators that it was not their mandate
to resolve the conflict but to find the underlying reasons for the conflict and
to make recommendations to the Premier
The
outcome of the mediation was that CATA Eyona refused to share facilities with
CATA Seawater. CATA Eyona requested the
Mowbray PTI manager to provide them with separate facilities from those used by
CATA Seawater.
9. Trends
emerging from the body of evidence
Certain trends have emerged from all the
evidence gathered. We highlight below
what appeared to be common trends from a majority of witnesses, testifying at
different times and places.
9.1 CULTURE OF LAWLESSNESS
The
one defining feature from the evidence presented was the fact that a culture of
lawlessness seemed to permeate the taxi industry. There was a perception from amongst those who
gave evidence at the Committee that a culture of fear and lawlessness
characterised the industry. This view
was shared by both taxi operators and law enforcement agencies alike.
Silence
dominates the industry. This created an
enabling environment for the continuation of the planning and execution of
violence in the industry. Acts of
violence are planned and executed in a deliberate way. This happens because perpetrators have
instilled fear in the industry. For
example, many people were aware of the existence of
and frequent use of hit squads or iimbovane to resolve disputes, but none of
the members were prepared to testify in courts of law for fear of being
victimised. The Committee was given
various testimonies about those hit squads but no one was prepared to give
affidavits because of their fear of victimisation.
Two people died during the life of the Committee. This exacerbated the wave of fear in the
industry. However, the Committee did
its best to ensure the safety of its witnesses at the hearings. It also ensured the highest level of confidentiality
of their testimony. It was alleged by
most witnesses that gave evidence that the warlords were aware of the fact that
there was a lack of law enforcement and they took advantage of that. The fact that there was no visible policing
at the ranks, and also that threats were never taken seriously by law
enforcement agencies made it easy for the warlords to continue intimidating law
abiding members of the associations.
Most witnesses also indicated in their testimonies
that there was a perception that associations owned taxi ranks. In terms of the law, ranks are owned and
should be managed by local authorities.
It appears these authorities have abdicated their legal
responsibility. Lack of management of
ranks by local authorities exacerbated both lawlessness and the culture of
entitlement by associations. It was
alleged that in some ranks, associations decide who should operate and be
allowed to trade. In some instances
these associations were involved in acts of extortion by collecting money from
traders in the ranks. There were also
allegations of associations chasing other associations from ranks. For example in the Nyanga central rank CATA
collects money from traders and the Seawater Taxi Association chased away the
Inter-township Taxi Association.
9.1.1 Operating without licenses
There
seems to be no explanation about the illegal operators in the taxi
industry. Throughout the process of
hearing evidence from various taxi associations, it was apparent that all the
associations have illegal operators. These illegal operators were considered
legitimate operators by the association despite having no licenses.
The
practice in the industry is that an individual member pays the joining fee, is
accepted by the association and starts operating. The individual member is told about the rules
and regulations and later registered with the registrar so that he/ she can
access the license from the POLB.
The association does not
check the credential of the person joining the association, does not check the
vehicle brought by the individual - roadworthy or stolen - and is less
concerned about the previous criminal
record of the individual.
The
other prevalent practice in the associations is that members agree on a certain
number of taxis that each member can possess.
This number is not based on any scientific research about the number of
commuters in the area or any other issue.
As long as the member is able to access a vehicle he/she is allowed to
use it and then look for an operating license later.
9.1.2 Use of unroadworthy vehicles
There
seems to be an agreement in the taxi industry that old dilapidated vehicles
which are not roadworthy can still be used in some parts of the city.
Associations
have an agreement that inter- and intra-township operations should be serviced
by old dilapidated vehicles. The assumption is that law enforcement in
these areas is not as strong as in the suburbs. CATA operators moving between Langa, Nyanga,
Guguletu, Khayelitsha and Rylands use old dilapidated vehicles. CODETA
operators moving between Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Mitchell’s Plain use old
vehicles. These vehicles are referred to
as “Mashwabana”.
An
owner who has been operating to town or suburbs and is not able to purchase a
new vehicle is usually requested to join the inter-township route. For example, Seawater Taxi Association has
its main routes as Cape Town and Sea Point. These routes are operated by
roadworthy vehicles even if those vehicles do not have permits. Seawater also claims to have the Nyanga –
Langa and the Nyanga – Rylands routes.
In the Nyanga – Langa and Nyanga – Rylands routes, Seawater uses the
dilapidated vehicles that are not roadworthy.
Intra
township operations - Guguletu, Phillipi, Nyanga and Mitchell’s Plain - use old
unroadworthy sedan vehicles. These
vehicles are worse than those called “Mashwabana”. These vehicles have no fixed routes. Drivers have no drivers licenses or
PDPs. Some of the drivers are minors, are
very flexible for community services and belong to associations that are not
registered with the Registrar.
It
has become accepted that even though these vehicles are illegal in every way
possible, they provide an essential service to the community. The law enforcement officers do not interfere
with these vehicles since they operate in the townships.
9.1.3 Lack of governance
Evidence
reveals that associations seem to be managed on an ad hoc basis. There are no
written rules and regulations managing the associations that every member of
the associations can access when necessary.
The mother bodies i.e. CODETA and CATA do not have a constitution. When the executive of these structures were
requested to provide the Committee with copies of the constitution it was clear
that none existed despite claims that they were available.
CATA
claimed that the constitution was with the previous executive committee and
that they did not have a copy in the office.
CODETA gave the translated version of the standard constitution that is
provided by the NLTTA. This trend of
producing the standard constitution provided by the NLTTA continued even when
various associations were requested to provide the Committee with their
constitutions.
CATA
and CODETA – and all the associations - were not in a position to provide the
Committee with the financial records of their organisations. When CATA was requested to provide the
Committee with the name of its treasurer, its spokespersons gave us three
names. When the Committee requested
further details about the financial status of the organisation, and the bank
account, we were told that the treasurers were better positioned to provide the
information. The Committee was later
told that all the financial persons or treasurers were in the
CODETA
on the other hand was reluctant to provide the Committee with the details of
their bank account and was asking how this would assist the Committee. What was clear was that CODETA was not in a
position to provide us with the details.
They did not even provide the Committee with the financial reports
tabled in their meetings.
When asked about the
monthly or weekly subscriptions, CATA and CODETA were not in a position to
quantify the money levied from their associate members. CATA claimed that there are no subscriptions
but that whenever there is a need the association consult members for
contribution. They were reluctant to
tell the Committee that they have paid bail for the some members and not other. CATA said that their policy was not to pay
bail but to use the money for the activities of the organisation. Despite the fact that CODETA agreed that
there were standard funds contributed by associations, CODETA was unable to
explain the use of these funds by the executive.
9.1.4 Lack of management
Associations
have appointed structures called the Working Committees to be responsible for
the management of the day to day operations.
A Working Committee is a structure that is not found in the constitution
of any association, but exists in all the ranks and public transport
interchanges. As a result the roles
and responsibilities of persons serving in the structure are defined according
to what the current chairperson wants them to be.
The general understanding
of the role of the Working Committee is that its task is to oversee the day to
day operations of the association. The
Working Committee is also responsible for the discipline of drivers and members
of the association in the rank. They
are the first to respond if there is conflict in one of the ranks. In terms of accountability they report
directly to the chairperson or the executive of the association. The members of the Working Committee should
be in the rank on a daily basis even though they are not remunerated. They are
also taxi owners who have vehicles that are operating in the rank.
Members
elected to this Committee are those who show ability to apply strong arm
tactics in the rank and are fearless.
In most instances these members assume indirect leadership in the
organisation. They are responsible for
the collection of funds from members and are used to chase away members who do
not pay their dues. Because they are
not remunerated for the job they are doing everyday, they pay themselves
through the collection of funds from the membership.
9.1.5 Gentlemen’s agreements
Associations
belonging to the same mother body have in some cases agreed to share
routes. The reasons sometimes given by
these associations are that they have a very good relationship and therefore
are happy to operate together or that one of the associations does not have
enough vehicles to service the area and does not mind sharing with the sister
organisation. In some instances it is a
result of a relationship forged out of fear of being attacked by the resident
association and therefore they invite neighbours or any close association that
they regard as being strong and capable of engaging their potential
enemies. These agreements disregard the
legal framework within which the associations should operate. The consequence of such a relationship is
that some of the members of the hosted association begin to apply for permits
that belong to the resident association.
This practice is seen as legitimate and is acceptable when there are
still no problems between the two entities.
The
problem starts when the resident association is unhappy with the hosted
association or its members or when the resident association feels it is now in
a position to stand on its own. The
resident association begins by claiming that they are legitimate operators and
want to service their area without the assistance of the hosted
association. The resident association
goes on to demand separate facilities in the ranks or PTIs where the two
associations have been using the same facility. In forums and committees where the two
associations were jointly represented the resident association begins to demand
its status to be rectified to that of an independent association.
Experience
has shown that the separation of the two associations from the gentlemen’s
agreement becomes a very long and untidy process. Because there is no paper trail reflecting
the establishment of these relationships, it becomes difficult to assess the
beginning of the relationship, and the point of breakdown. It becomes impossible to understand or
verify the statements given by either of the parties. The Registrar and the POLB do not have any
records of this relationship as it takes place outside their jurisdiction – a
clear recipe for chaos and conflict.
9.1.6
Taxi conflict with GABS
In
the past few years GABS has been involved in conflict with the taxi
industry. There have been various
allegations that GABS has an official that is placed at the offices of the
Provincial Operating Licensing Board with the aim of opposing all the
applications for permits by taxi associations.
It is alleged this was a strategy to frustrate the taxi operators and
remove them from competition. However,
GABS disputed these allegations and confirmed that they have a right to oppose
applications that infringe on their operations.
The
industry’s frustration with GABS has manifested itself in different violent
clashes with GABS. In Khayelitsha, as a
result of perceived competition with GABS, the taxi industry attacked GABS
busses. This resulted in the injury of
commuters. Even though the culprits
were arrested, and there is now relative peace between taxis and buses in
Khayelitsha, GABS still does not operate from the major transport interchange
in Khayelitsha.
In
Nyanga, buses were chased away from the main public transport facility by taxi
operators linked to CATA. This facility
was then monopolised by the taxi association and GABS was not allowed to
operate from this rank. The result was
that commuters seeking the services of buses had to walk longer distances from
the rank. Recently after various
interactions with taxi associations GABS was then allowed to operate from the
rank. This was at the initiative of the
Provincial Department of Transport and Public Works.
Almost every witness touched on the collection of
money from the ranks. The joining fee
has also been raised in the evidence as part of the money that these
associations levy. Testimony reveals
that the money collected as joining fee ranges from R10 000.00 (ten thousand
rands) to R60 000.00 (sixty thousand rands) per new recruit. The Committee was told that the reason for
this high amount is to deter people from joining. This money goes to the coffers of the
association.
Witnesses testimony corroborated each other that the
amount collected and names of people collecting this money were the same. The days on which the money is collected was
also the same according to all testimonies.
For example the Committee was told that in CATA R100.00 (hundred rands)
is collected on Mondays and Wednesdays and in cases where there are arrests
and/or court cases, a further R1000.00 (thousand rand) is collected at the end
of every month. The Committee was also
told that this money is levied per taxi and not per owner. This means that where a member owns four
taxis, he will be expected to contribute R400.00 (four hundred rand) twice a
week and R4000.00 (four thousand rand) once a month. Failure to make such contribution can lead
to one incurring disfavour of the leaders.
That could mean that either their taxis will be taken of the road or
they will face paying a fine determined by the leaders. Some of the witnesses claimed to have
reported the matter to relevant authorities but nothing was done.
Over and above the R100.00 (one hundred rand) and
R1000.00 (one thousand rand) collected from members, there is a daily
contribution of R10.00 every day. These
R10.00’s (ten rand) are collected by route associations and ultimately given to
the leaders every week. There is
information that a taxi called “The Blue House Kombi” procured from the money
made out of these ten rand collections.
This taxi travels on long distance routes within the province. These are trips to towns such as Worcester,
Ceres, Robertson and Hermanus. This taxi
makes about R250.00 (two hundred and fifty rands) on weekdays and R350.00
(three hundred and fifty rands) during weekends per day. This taxi must also always be given first
preference when it comes to loading of passengers on any of the above-mentioned
routes. There are rumours that this
taxi was procured specifically to raise money for payment of iimbovane that are
behind.
CODETA on the other hand levies its affiliates the
same amount of money. CODETA
associations in turn levy their members in order to pay the amount demanded by
CODETA.
9.2 PREVALENCE
OF HIT SQUADS (ANTS / IIMBOVANE)
A general feature of the
violence in the industry is the fact that most of the killings and attacks are
planned by warlords. These warlords are
an inner circle of few people who operate secretly and are usually in charge of
the war chest. Iimbovane are young
people who are not taxi operators, but are hired to commit acts of violence on
behalf of the taxi associations. Some
of these hit squads members are former members of the military wing of the
previous liberation movements such as ANC or PAC armed wings that were not
integrated into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
They are hired by the older
generation of taxi drivers to commit acts of murder against their rivals. If for example, a taxi association in Area
A wants to take over a taxi rank in Area B, they would hire an
iimbovane to go and shoot at the operators at the rank in Area B, before
they take it over. This has been the
modus operandi for most of the attacks perpetrated so far.
The older, more experienced
owners are usually responsible for selecting the target(s), planning the
logistics, recruitment of the iimbovane and collecting the monies to pay for
the services of the iimbovane.
They usually request a younger taxi driver to
accompany the iimbovane to the site of the attack to identify the target. The young taxi driver will be involved in
pointing out the suspect before driving the iimbovane from the scene to
safety. From evidence presented,
the Committee has heard that the iimbovane has demanded sums of money of up to
R12 000, but have been paid between R2000 and
R5000 for their efforts.
Victor Sam, Max Makanda and Reggie
Malimba were killed by iimbovane.
According to evidence presented to the Committee, Victor Sam, at times also
hired iimbovane to commit assassinations and other crimes.
There have been numerous
events where it appears that iimbovane have been used to perpetrate taxi
violence. During the course of the investigation, it was found that iimbovane
were used in the following attacks:
People who are ordering the killings
It
is also evident from the evidence gathered, that it is the same people that are
hiring the iimbovane. Although the
incidents differ and time has lapsed between the incidents, it remains the same
people who reportedly ordered the shootings and killings. It has been difficult for the Committee to
get anyone to go on record to name the guilty parties. They have provided such details to the
Committee off the record. The stated
reason is that they fear for their safety and their lives. They all however confirm that a particular
group of people are responsible (in both CATA and CODETA) for ordering the
killings.
The members of this group
of people are about thirty in extent and are to be found in the different taxi
associations. They are older, more
experienced taxi owners and are able to control the activities of the taxi
associations by either being rank managers, members of the working committee of
either taxi association, or sometimes just taxi owners. It is our contention that they have
sufficient influence amongst the ordinary taxi members to issue instructions.
Witnesses also believe that they are reasonably the ones who take
responsibility to collect vast sums of cash from drivers at the ranks each day.
During
the investigation, the Committee was able to establish their identities from
the testimonies given by convicted iimbovane whom they had hired. The difficulty with bringing the implicated
people to court is that police investigations have been sloppy, witnesses have also proved to be unreliable
when testifying in court. There is also
a culture of fear that prevents witnesses from coming forward to corroborate
the evidence of the convicted criminals.
During
the hearings, some of these implicated individuals reportedly attended the
hearings and intimidated other individuals.
In one case referred to the Committee, the Committee advised the
complainant to lay a charge of intimidation against the named intimidator.
9.3
UNRESOLVED ISSUES:
“THE STADIUM AND THE LAINGSBURG
EVENTS”
During the hearings and in interviews with the various
taxi associations, there were continuous references to the Stadium and
Laingsburg shootings. The Committee has
investigated the reasons why CATA and CODETA hold up these incidents as a
historical basis for their explanation and justification for continued conflict
and further incidents of violence in the industry. It appears that both CATA and CODETA have
not been able to get closure for the incidents where people lost their
lives. We deal with each of these
incidents below.
9.3.1 THE Stadium Incident
During testimony from
members of CATA, the Committee heard that during September 1994, CATA was
invited to a SANCO rally which was to be held at Khayelitsha Stadium. The members of CATA discussed the invitation
and agreed that they should attend, although some members had reservations due
to the fact that the invitations had indicated that they should not bring any
firearms to the rally. The invitations
were received after CATA broke away from CODETA. In the invitation they had been told that
they would be expected to speak at the rally and explain the reasons they had
left CODETA.
During
the rally, members of CATA sang their own songs after they were warned by the
Master of Ceremonies (MC) to be quiet.
The MC, allegedly remarked that SANCO also had its own “dogs” which they
would unleash. At the end of the
proceedings, the MC announced that the CATA members must congregate in a
particular corner of the stadium as there was someone who wanted to address
them.
After
the crowd had left the stadium, the CATA members were attacked with automatic
firearms and a hand grenade was thrown into one of their vehicles. Eleven
people died and scores were injured.
According to CATA, the police told them that the incident was not going
to be investigated because there were high profile people of the ANC involved.
The
Committee has not been able to trace any police dockets of this particular
incident.
9.3.2 Laingsburg
The incident that took
place in Laingsburg is unclear. It is
alleged that it was a retaliation by CATA for the Stadium shootings although it
took place two years after the Stadium incident.
The
Committee heard that CODETA members were transporting a deceased member to the
CATA
allegedly shot one of their own members during the ambush, Mr Mfengwana, and
allegedly dumped his body near Khayelitstha.
Some of the people who gave evidence to the Committee indicated that
CATA had a feud with Mr Mfengwana and killed him under the guise of the taxi
war. From the dockets perused, it is
clear that the police that were sent to the scene were inexperienced. For the Laingsburg incident some people were
arrested but the charges were later withdrawn.
For the Mfengwana case no one was arrested. It is unacceptable in our view that these
events still remain “unsolved”.
9.4
CULTURE OF
ENTITLEMENT
Joining
an association, paying huge sums of joining fees and submission of an
application to the POLB seem to create an expectation in the members that they
are entitled to permits. As a result
these association members operate even before they get feedback from the POLB
on the success or failure of the permit application.
Evidence
has shown that operators believe that they are entitled to get the permits if
they have applied despite the fact that some of the routes remain 70%
overtraded. This attitude is further
engendered by consultants who process applications for a fee at the Board. Debbie Miller, indicated that she felt that
it was the right of the operators in the Du Noon area to receive the total
number of permits that she had applied for.
According to her, it is their “human right “ to receive the
permits.
9.5
ILLEGAL
OPERATORS
Illegal
operators have been defined by officials as those that operate without
permits. This definition does not take
into consideration those operators that have legal permits but operate on
routes that are not in their permits.
The definition of illegal operators has also resulted in the confusion
about the number of illegal operators in the
The
Committee has also identified the fact that permits are attached to vehicles
instead of owners or entities when it comes to taxis. The result is that when the particular
vehicle with a permit is involved in an accident, that means that the owner is
not in a position to trade. The trend
is that operators use different vehicles and that it takes time to transfer
permits to the new vehicle.
The
consequences of illegal operators is that they infringe on other associations’
routes. This leads to conflict. In circumstances where no one has a permit to
operate on the said route, it becomes difficult to mediate as every operator
claims the legitimate right to operate on the route.
9.6 COLOURED MINIBUS TAXI
OPERATORS
Taxi
operators in Coloured areas do not face the same type of problems that are
experienced by African operators. The
biggest Coloured minibus associations in the
Coloured
taxi operators are however subjected to extortion and payment of protection
fees by gang members. The Committee has
heard evidence of how taxi operators are subjected to a campaign of fear from
gang members who have penetrated the industry, especially in the Mitchell’s
Plain, Athlone, and
From the evidence that has been gathered, gang members
are used by operators to force drivers to peddle drugs. The Committee heard how gang members
intimidate drivers, passengers and rank managers in their dealing with drugs at
certain ranks such as Mitchell’s Plain. The Committee
heard that gang members own taxis in areas such as Bonteheuwel, Manenberg and
Mitchell’s Plain, and extort monies from other taxi operators.
While
the violence appears to be between two African associations, CATA and CODETA,
the possibility exists that it can spill over to the Coloured associations as
well. .
There
have been very few violent conflicts between coloured taxi operators. It does
however not mean that this will continue to be the state of affairs. The
Committee visited various taxi ranks during its investigation and found that
the potential for conflict exists between Coloured associations in these
ranks..
9.7 CODETA’S PERCEPTIONS OF CATA
CODETA does not trust CATA
members. The rivalry between the two organisations goes back since the
inception of CATA. CATA was formed in 1993 as a result of dissatisfaction with
CODETA. CATA is seen as being close to the PAC in view of the fact that they
were organised by Mr Victor Sam who was a member of the PAC and subsequently
joined the United Democratic Movement (UDM).
The antagonism between CATA and CODETA persists because of unresolved
issues such as the Laingsburg and Stadium issues.
9.8 CATA’S PERCEPTIONS OF
CODETA
CATA
members do not trust CODETA members. CATA was formed because of the perception
that CODETA was not addressing the interests of the taxi industry. CATA also
believes that CODETA is politically aligned to the ANC.that
the attack on its members at the Stadium in Khayelitsha in 1994 was planned by
SANCO and CODETA. Since the Stadium incident the relationship between CATA and
CODETA has deteriorated. This has resulted in CATA and CODETA signing many
agreements which have not worked in most instances. As a result CATA members do not freely go to
Khayelitsha and CODETA members do not freely go to Nyanga.
9.9 THE INDUSTRY’S
PERCEPTION OF GOVERNMENT
From
the evidence presented before the Committee, the government is perceived with
disdain by the taxi industry. The
industry is disgruntled with the POLB for all the reasons already canvassed
above.
Complaints of poor law
enforcement were received from CATA, CODETA and other taxi associations. Both
CATA and CODETA complained that the law enforcement authorities take sides in
their conflict.
The issue of unsolved cases has also given the impression that
government is not serious about resolving the conflict in the taxi
industry. Many cases that relate to the
killing of taxi operators have not been resolved by the police. Taxi operators
believe that police have not made serious attempts to solve these cases.
9.10 THE COMMUNITY’S PERCEPTIONS OF THE INDUSTRY
As already indicated, only
two submissions were received from the community – from UMAC and YEKA –UMUNYU.
The Committee was always of
the impression that the community’s perception of the taxi industry is very
negative and that taxi operators are perceived as rude, violent and having no
regard for the community needs.
However, it is remarkable that no formal submissions were made in this
regard.
9.11 CULTURE OF FEAR
Most people who gave
evidence spoke of the culture of fear in the industry. Many people who
testified were reluctant to give names to the Committee except those already
convicted. Those who gave names did so in private and were not ready to be
quoted. The reason for this is that a culture of fear pervades the industry as
a result of the many killings of taxi operators. The murder of Khupiso may have strengthened
this culture, although the Committee was pleasantly surprised that even after
Khupiso’s murder, people still came to testify before the Committee.
From the evidence
presented, there were people who refused to provide the Committee with names of
people that were involved in perpetrating violence.
Their reasons related to
the fact that they had families and were afraid to testify because they could
be killed.
9.12 WAR CHEST
The
Committee heard that the taxi bosses collect large amounts of money during taxi
wars. The money collected is used to
ostensibly hire hit men, buy illegal fire-arms, employ the services of
traditional healers, pay for legal fees, bail for those arrested, pay families
of “iimbovane” and maintain the services of those involved in violence.
This
money is usually collected on a daily basis at the ranks. This money cannot be
accounted for by those who collect it.
Those who collect the money cannot be questioned and anyone who
questions them is viewed with suspicion and can also be targeted by the
warlords.
Various patterns have
emerged from evidence presented. Money
collected at the ranks on a daily basis:
CASE
STUDY: MONEY GENERATION - CATA
THE BELLVILLE TAXI ASSOCIATION (BELLTA)
Bellville Taxi
Association is a CATA affiliate which is
in control of 14 routes
and collects money from
each route. Nyanga and Mowbray lines are the most lucrative routes in
Bellville. The following illustrates the
generation of monies for CATA and/or its affiliates:
Joining fees is R30 000.
Rank fees is R10 per day.
The Mowbray line has 117 vehicles
(117 x R10 x6 days= R7020)
The Nyanga line has 300 vehicles
(300 x R10 x 6 days =R18000)
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (R100 when there is a war)
Nyanga Line (117x300= R35 100)
Mowbray Line (300x300=R90 000)
For these two routes, if
there is a war, Bellta could collect up to
R125 100 per week. If we assume
that there are fourteen routes, then we can safely assume that BELLTA
could generate well over R600 000 per week in a war situation.
What is clear from these
calculations is that mother bodies have considerable financial resources to
continue wars with their rivals because they operate cash businesses, for which
there is no accounting system. It is an
untenable situation, one that puts an enormous capacity to commit violent
crimes in the hands of a few individuals.
No orderly society, let alone a constitutional democracy can ever allow
such a state of affairs to continue.
Whilst operators’ right to economic activity should be jealously
protected, such rights should be limited by obligations that require the
operators to account openly and transparently for the manner in which they earn
their money, and how they disburse it.
They also have an obligation to pay tax.
Their conduct, manifested by their refusal to disclose to the Committee
details of their banking accounts, if such exist, smirk of efforts at tax
evasion, amongst other crimes they may be up to.
9.13 CORRUPTION IN STATE
INSTITUTIONS
A
disturbing feature of the evidence that was presented to the Committee relates
to the issue of corruption in state institutions. Allegations of corruption
were levelled at the following institutions:
In
the case of the Provincial Operating Licensing Board the Committee recommended
a forensic audit of the Board (administrative and executive). This
recommendation was approved. The audit
is currently underway.
The
allegations on SAPS corruption are mostly levelled against some of the members
of the former Taxi Investigative Unit. Some of the allegations are that some of
the individual police members:
§
Have been accepting money and food from taxi associations;
§
Regularly use taxis to transport them to rugby
matches in the Eastern Cape;
§
Own taxis and have an interest to see to it that
the taxi conflict stays unresolved;
§
Protect certain taxi operators who are behind the
taxi wars, and
§
Use some of the perpetrators of violence as
informers.
While allegations of police
corruption persist, there was very little evidence presented to the Committee
with which we could make a definite finding.
Allegations
of corruption in the City are that the members of the City Transport Branch own
taxis and therefore have a direct interest in the taxi industry.
These allegations have not
been verified.
Allegations against the
Traffic Department at City and Provincial level are that:
9.14 LACK OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
Despite
the evidence from the Traffic Department, the Committee heard that there is a lack of law enforcement when it comes to
policing taxi laws. Most of the taxi associations that testified before the
Committee, indicated that they were tired of being stopped by their rivals when
the police were not doing it. It is clear that routes are not properly policed,
giving rise to taxi associations policing routes themselves. This in turn provided
the ideal opportunity for fights and conflict between rival taxi associations.
9.15 RECAPITALISATION AND OTHER GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES
According to the submission
made by the National Transport Department, the TRP started in 1999. The
objectives of the TRP are to:
The industry is measured by the amount of new vehicles
entering the industry. There were various safety features that needed to be
designed into the process of acquiring new vehicles. Currently there are
approximately 16000 taxis in the country. With the recap process, it is the
intention of government to exit 30% of the vehicles from the industry. 25% of
the price of a new vehicle is to be de-linked over a period of seven years. The
thirty five seater bus has been reviewed and it was found that it had an urban
bias.
Government is now proposing
three seating bands of busses:
9-14 seater;
17-24 seater, and
25-34 seater.
The
operators have the choice of the type of taxi on the routes that they choose to
work on. On
The
strategy aims to create a provincial readiness assessment which aims to get the
provinces moving in line with the taxi industry and in line with transport
objectives.
The strategy also proposes to:
The safety requirements are
due to be implemented on
In
terms of regulation, government will be central to creating the amendments to
the NLTTA. This relates to the ownership and control of taxi ranks and the
ownership of routes.
There would be a set
maximum amount to be charged on the contributions and joining fees of
associations. There are also plans for the introduction of a taxi regulatory
body.
The
scrapping process would involve the replacement of 10 000 un-roadworthy taxis
by December 2006. A total of R7.7 billion has been made available for the
scrapping process. Of this amount, R2.5 billion has been made available for
public transport law enforcement processes.
The subsidy for public
transport will be reviewed. It is envisaged that taxi associations should form
business associations. Interim bus contracts will be extended every month and
it is the intention to make taxi associations compete for some of the bus
contracts. An integrated ticketing system is being investigated.
Whilst the TRP is awaited
with anxiety by the operators, the delay in implementing the programme is
arguably a factor that might account for the instability in the industry. Even the most enthusiastic of the operators
are concerned that there is no certainty about the programme that has been
talked about for the last years.
9.16 SUBSIDISATION
The
subsidisation policy applies only to bus and railway passengers despite the
fact that nationally the taxis carry more passengers than the two modes of
transport put together. In the Cape
metropolitan area, whereas the taxi industry is the second largest carrier of
commuters, taxi passengers still do not enjoy any form of subsidy like buses
and railway. The national department of
transport is presently engaged in studies that are aimed at addressing
subsidisation for taxi passengers.
Subsidisation of passengers
using other modes and the impact of subsidies in those modes emerged when the whole
issue of profitability in the taxi industry was discussed. Taxi associations were adamant that with the
absence of subsidisation they were not in a position to give better services to
commuters and at the same time operate a sustainable business.
The other issue that kept
cropping up under subsidisation was the state of vehicles operated by the taxi
industry. The taxi associations
acknowledged the dilapidated state of some of their vehicles. They were aware that
the fleet was growing older and suggested that any form of subsidisation of
their passengers would give the industry an opportunity to invest in the
constant renewal of their fleet.
The discussion of the
renewal of the fleet went along with issue of the TRP. It was clear that although the taxi industry
in principle supported the ideals of the TRP they were all not clear about what
was going on in this programme. The TRP
was seen as a rescue mission but the taxi industry did not have the details of
the programme. As a result they rejected it because different interpretations
were given by other operators who saw it as working against the idea of the
renewal of the fleet.
Rail and bus passengers are
subsidized due to the fact that operators are providing a public transport
service.
The
Committee deliberated over whether passengers in the minibus taxi industry
should also be subsidized. In view of the fact that the industry is privately
owned, but provides a public transport service, the Committee is of the opinion
that a subsidy should apply to these passengers as well.
9.17 PUBLIC TRANSPORT
INTERCHANGES/RANKS
Public
Transport Interchanges and ranks play an important role in the promotion and
development of public transport. They
are built and owned by the municipality but are managed by the private sector.
In
1998 the City of
Even though the study took
place in 1998 there has been no effort on the side of the City to implement
some of the findings.
In Langa the establishment
of the interchange led to misunderstanding in the taxi industry. Members of taxi associations that are not
Langa residents felt that the Langa Forum used the constitution to chase away
all taxi owners that were not residents in Langa. These members argued that the constitution
made provisions for only Langa operators to be represented in the Forum. The Committee made various attempts to access
the constitution of the Langa Forum but was unsuccessful. The Committee was told that the chairman of
the Langa Forum was away on business and was responsible for the safe keeping
of the constitution.
The exclusion of other
members in the Langa Forum has presented unnecessary problems for Langa
associations in other areas. For example
the Committee learnt that as a result of the exclusion of other associations from
Langa Forum, Langa associations were chased away from Nyanga and Wynberg.
Further investigation by
the Committee showed that the problem emanates from the management of the
PTIs. The PTI managers establish taxi
forums that are run exclusively by taxi associations. This presented various problems for the
management of PTI. Some of the problems
are as follows:
·
There seemed to be no clear distinction between the
rank managers and PTI managers. In most
instances taxi owners were not aware that there were PTI managers who were above
the rank managers, and
·
In some instances PTI managers were not aware of
the problems taking place at taxi rank level.
As a result taxis claimed that they were chased away by rank managers.
10. FINDINGS BY THE
COMMITTEE
10.1
UNDERLYING REASONS FOR THE INSTABILITY AND
RECURRING CONFLICT
The Committee is
of the opinion that there are a number of underlying reasons for the
instability and recurring conflict.
Amongst the chief reasons are the following:
1)
The unresolved and outstanding investigations around
the Khayelitsha Stadium and Laingsburg incidents in 1994 and 1996
respectively. In Khayelitsha no one was
arrested and in Laingsburg no one was convicted. About 11 people were murdered in Khayelitsha
and about four died in Laingsburg;
2)
The role played by the executive and administrative
sections of the POLB and the resultant corruption of the institution. In addition the slow pace of processing
licenses by the POLB has completely discredited the POLB in the industry. No one speaks well of the POLB;
3)
Despite the fact that there is general agreement
between all the institutions that taxi routes are overtraded, the POLB
continues to issue permits on routes;
4)
The divisive role of the CATA and CODETA “Mother
Bodies”. These organisations are
unaccountable and continue to collect monies from operators who are promised
routes and licenses;
5)
The vested interests of taxi operators who have
control over certain routes and do not allow anyone to interfere with their
vested interests;
6)
The absolute lack of any significant law
enforcement of the taxi ranks and routes.
The current practice is for rival taxi associations to force one another
off a particular route if they do not belong there. This gives rise to
continual conflict between rival associations to force one another off a
particular route if they do not belong there.
This gives rise to associations taking over some of the routes and ranks
by force from rival associations, and
7)
The culture of fear and terror amongst drivers,
operators and commuters perpetuates the culture of silence amongst people who
witness violence. Consequently, no one
ever was prepared to give evidence that would lead to the arrest and conviction
of criminal elements in the industry.
10.2
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE VIOLENCE
1)
The chaos at the POLB with respect to processing
applications, staff turnover and appointments as well as the questionable role
of members of the Board itself. The
Board continues to allocate licenses even when some of the routes are 70% overtraded.
2)
The Provincial Department of Transport did not
implement recommendations of an
audit report that was commissioned in
2001 to investigate the POLB administration
The audit report has found that:
·
The Board members were not considered as senior by
the department and as a result the management of the institution was delegated
to the Deputy Director;
·
No proper records were kept. As a result it was not easy to follow what
was happening after the application was submitted;
·
The applications are gazetted as soon as they are
launched. There is usually no information on what was gazetted. This means that the same application can be
gazetted more than once depending on how many times it was launched, and
·
Almost half the staff involved in the processing of
permits are temporary. This means that there is no consistency and continuity
in the processing of permits. Every six
months new staff members have to be trained to do the same job.
3)
The Provincial Transport Department has abdicated
its responsibility towards the POLB.
4)
There is a serious lack of effective management,
leadership and direction in the Board.
Consequently the Committee recommended an urgent extensive forensic
audit be undertaken on the affairs of the Board.
5)
The role of the
6)
SARS does not seem to have been diligent in
investigating whether taxi operators are tax payers at all. Despite several attempts to get the Cape Town
SARS investigations department to work with this Committee, they did not even
return the calls and correspondence addressed to them.
7)
The application of the criminal justice system to
taxi operators has been seriously undermined by, inter alia, the
following:
·
The SAPS seem to have failed to properly
investigate serious crimes. In some
cases, they have simply refused to
investigate serious crimes e.g. The Stadium Event where they refused to
investigate ostensibly because there were “ANC cadres” at the event;
·
There is no co-ordination between law enforcement
agencies (SAPS, Scorpions, AFU, City Police, Traffic Police, NIA etc.) aimed at
smashing the crimes that obviously do take place in the industry – and are
escalating;
·
There is no system in place to warn the law
enforcement agencies about serious crimes that are likely to be committed. Law enforcement agencies seem to react to
crisis situations that have arisen, and even so without commitment;
·
The operators in the industry have lost all respect
for the sanctions provided by available legislation. They do not pay fines (often very low)
because they know they will not be acted upon by law enforcement agencies, and
·
Even though impounding of motor vehicles is an
effective remedy available to law enforcement agencies, excuses seem to be
readily found why resort is not had to this very effective remedy – no place to
keep impounded taxis etc. We seem to
think it is all because those whose duty it is to enforce the law have lost the
will to do so – a very sad state of affairs indeed.
10.3
TAXI ASSOCIATIONS
1)
The Taxi Associations principally, CATA and CODETA
are involved in illegal activities such as the killings of their rivals during
conflicts between them.
2)
They are in a position to collect fees from their
members that range between twenty and sixty thousand rand in exchange for a
promise of routes and licenses. This
should not be allowed to happen as it directly contributes to the conflict.
3)
The operators also collect cash monies of thousands
of rand per route on a weekly basis. We
believe that, alternatively, these monies that are unaccounted for eventually
end fuelling the wars between rival organisations.
4)
They do not keep books of account for this purpose.
5)
There is a culture of silence between the drivers,
owners and leaders with respect to illegal activities such as hiring of hit-men
to take out rival taxi leaders.
6)
The taxi association mother bodies operate like a
modern day mafia with the power to extort monies from operators, the ability to
kill people who disagree with them and threaten their interests.
7)
A group of about thirty to forty people has been
identified to us who it is reasonable to believe might possibly be behind most
of the violence that affects the industry.
It would appear that for the most part, they are the owners and operators who have a vested
interest in most of the routes.
8)
There is a strong indication of a link with gangs,
especially in the Coloured associations.
These gangs reportedly extort monies from operators and drivers alike.
9)
It would further appear that there is a also a link
with drugs and organised crime in that taxi drivers are used to cart drugs,
sometimes sell drugs at the ranks, cart prostitutes to customers, and generally
provide attorneys’ fees to people that have been arrested for particular
crimes.
10)
Taxi
associations are supposed to provide their constitutions to the
Taxi Registrar. This has not happened.
Furthermore no annual
general meetings have been held for the
past four years.
11. IDENTIFICATION
OF POSSIBLE POTENTIAL AREAS
FOR
CONTINUING CONFLICT AND INSTABILITY
The Committee is of the
opinion that there are a number of potential areas that could contribute to
conflict over the next few years if not addressed by the Provincial
Government. It is a concern that some of
these issues have been left to officials who do not have the commitment and
capacity to deal with it.
11.1
PROVINCIAL OPERATIONS LICENSING BOARD
The Committee is unanimous
in its opinion that the POLB should be overhauled in terms of its operating
systems, management framework and its financial systems
11.2 HIT
SQUADS
The investigations into hit
squads in the industry, some of the members whom this Committee has identified
should commence as soon as possible.
Where they are left untouched by justice, the possibility that they will
continue to be hired by the senior members of the taxi industry, will no doubt
continue. It is in the interest of
bringing stability to the taxi industry that the opportunity for recruitment,
hiring and nurturing of these hit-men should be closed as soon as
possible.
The proposal from the
Committee in this regard is that the multi-disciplinary task team should
investigate them with the view of eventually arresting and bring them to
justice as a matter of priority. The
multi-disciplinary team should have the resources to bring these individuals to
justice. The Committee is of the opinion
that if these individuals are brought to justice, it will no doubt help to
re-establish a sense of stability in the industry by encouraging others to come
forward and share information with the law enforcement authorities.
11.3 UNSOLVED CRIMINAL CASES
The Committee has
noted that there are a number of
unsolved criminal cases that should be re-opened with a view to solving
them. Chief amongst these are the
Laingsburg and Khayelitsha Stadium cases.
The Committee views this in an extremely serious light and are convinced
that the investigation and arrests of suspects responsible for the attacks, will
bring closure to the victims. It will
also greatly reduce the opportunity for conflict amongst the various taxi
associations.
11.4
UNCERTAINTY
ABOUT THE FUTURE: RECAPITILISATION PROCESS
The TRP should urgently and
effectively be communicated by the Transport Departments to all the taxi associations
so that they can understand the process.
The fact that government has now announced the progress of the TRP
indicates that there is considerable movement in the process. A risk factor requiring attention is the
illegal operators and the attitude of the National Taxi Alliance and its
supporters in the
The TRP should be managed
with the utmost care and professionalism on the part of the Department of
Transport and Public Works.
11.5
CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT OF RANKS
Certain ranks have been
taken over by the taxi associations and access to these ranks are denied to
members of other associations. The City
of
11.6 MOTHER
BODIES
The question of “Mother
Bodies” needs to be addressed as they exert an inordinate amount of control
over their route based affiliates. They
are unaccountable, have not held annual general meetings and do not provide
financial reports on a regular basis.
Whilst it is clear that they cannot be ignored or wished away since they
have entrenched their positions over time, it is clear that they need to be
engaged on a sustainable basis.
Ultimately, whether they or the taxi councils end up being the key
players in the industry, what is clear is that government cannot and should not
allow structures that are unaccountable to run such a critical industry. Associations must accept that it can no
longer be business as usual henceforth.
The stakes are simply too high.
12. POSSIBLE MECHANISMS TO ENSURE
ACCOUNTABILITY, STABILITY AND ABSENCE
OF
CONFLICT
The Department of Transport
through the Registrar, should consider developing or contracting an independent
dispute resolution agency to manage potential conflicts in the industry. The Registrar should also force associations
to hold AGM’s, failing which they should be de-registered.
12.1
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Law enforcement should
become an urgent part of reducing the conditions for the instability in the
industry. The fact that there are three
law enforcement agencies responsible for minibus taxis, which do not
communicate on a regular basis, creates problems.
The primary and secondary
law enforcement agencies must as a matter of urgency have a meeting to review
their role in the context of this report and begin to redefine their roles and
responsibilities and find common purpose.
12.2
REGISTRATION AND DATABASES
The registration of the
taxi associations details are inadequate.
It creates problems when the Registrar does not have an updated database
on the details of all taxi associations that are registered. The Committee is of the opinion that the
Registrar should consider a more effective system of collating
information.
12.3
OVERHAUL OF THE OPERATIONS
LICENSING BOARD (POLB)
The Committee had an in
loco inspection at the POLB. We came
across files where there was clear forgery of SARS documents. The staff at the POLB accepts any letter
from SARS without checking its authenticity.
The Committee’s proposal is that it becomes a condition for a tax
clearance certificate to be submitted with application The POLB is already undergoing a forensic
investigation into its practices and the recommendations should be used as a
basis to overhaul its operations.
13. PAST AGREEMENTS BETWEEN CODETA AND CATA
There have been past
agreements between CATA and CODETA which have not been sustained, nor have they
averted taxi conflict. Where there are
agreements that have been mediated, the mediation process should preferably be
undertaken by an independent organisation that has the experience to mediate in
such conflicts. In addition resources should be provided to monitor and enforce
the agreements.
13.1
ELEMENTS OF A POSSIBLE AGREEMENT
Elements of a possible
agreement with the taxi industry are the fact that there needs to be a
restructuring of the WCPTC which should make it more inclusive and
representative of the entire industry.
Secondly the influence of mother bodies must be significantly reduced
and regional councils should receive recognition. There needs to be sufficient resources
allocated to regional councils.
14. GOVERNMENT’S OBLIGATION TOWARDS TAXI
ASSOCIATIONS
Government should address
the ensuing conflict and regularise the industry so that the operators are
empowered to be business men and women.
The fact that the minibus taxi industry has burgeoned, growing from
strength to strength on a sustainable basis, can only mean that there is
entrepreneurship among those who ply their trade in this business. The minibus industry is arguably the most
original example one can get in South African of genuine Black
empowerment. With active Government
support and intervention the taxi associations can play a constructive role in
stabilising the industry in a way that can generate stability in the
operations, whilst equally economically empowering the taxi operators who would
now operate in a crime-free environment.
15. RECOMMENDATIONS
15.1
The Committee recommends the establishment of a
semi-permanent dispute resolution body to mediate between taxi associations
once disputes arise over routes. Such a
dispute resolution body should be independent,
and should report to the Registrar.
15.2
The Committee recommends that Government reviews
the operational activities and management framework of the POLB in order to
ensure compliance with legislative imperatives and to create efficiency and
effectiveness.
15.3
Government should eradicate the practice of the
Traffic Department allowing the CATA and CODETA patrols along the N1 and N2 as
this has no basis in law.
15.4
Government should immediately set up a
multi-disciplinary investigative team comprising of SAPS, SARS, NPA, and NIA to
investigate the taxi warlords who continue to order the killings and are
involved in other criminal activity.
This team should, inter alia, examine the previous cases of taxi owners
and drivers that have never been brought to justice with the intent to
prosecute them. The team should also
investigate possible crimes of tax evasion by taxi owners.
15.5
Law enforcement agencies from SAPS, Provincial
and City Traffic and
City Police should set up a joint task team to deal
with any road traffic violations arising from failed disputes between owners and
associations. An early warning system
should be developed and information and intelligence must be shared amongst the
role-players.
15.6
The Committee recommends that all the tapes,
transcripts, records, notes and reports that were gathered in the process of
this investigation should not be immediately made available to the public until
such time as the Premier and his Government have gone through the records to
determine which records can be released without prejudicing those who are
named. This would obviously be in line
with the rules of natural justice and the need to protect the rights of
individuals in terms of the Constitution.
15.7
The Committee, however, further recommends that the
body of evidence collected should be appropriately archived and with time, be
made available to the public for research and other bona fide purposes.
16. CONCLUSION
At the beginning of this
report, we indicated that the Committee had time and capacity constraints. In the remaining six weeks of its original
mandate, it functioned without its chairperson, who was hospitalised from
The Committee,
notwithstanding these vicissitudes, believes that it has collected a credible
body of evidence.
The
efficacy and commitment with which the attempt to stabilise the industry is
undertaken by all parties, remains the biggest challenge. Part of the endeavour should be a commitment
to implement, as soon as possible, those of the recommendations in this report
that call for immediate action.
It is therefore hoped that
the contents of this report will be acted upon with speed, to prevent further
loss of life of operators and commuters.
The Committee hopes that the report will not gather the proverbial dust
but that its contents will be discussed at the highest levels in Government, We
particularly hope that the appointment of the multi-disciplinary investigative
team will be given the urgent attention it deserves.
These are obviously
difficult decisions to make, at times impacted upon by budgetary and other restraints. Those difficult choices, however, will have
to be made by the Premier, to whom we hand over this report, warts and
all. We do so, nonetheless, certain in
the belief that his passionate concern for loss of life, that prompted him and
his Government to appoint this Committee in the first place, will inform the
Premier’s ultimate strategy decisively putting mechanisms for the resolution of
the conflict and instability in the minibus taxi industry in the Cape Town
Metropolitan area. Time is of the
utmost importance.
As for the rest, the
Committee thanks the Premier and his Government for having afforded it the rare
honour, privilege and opportunity to attempt to undertake such a heavy
task. We can only hope that their
confidence in us was not misplaced. We
are confident that it was not.
.
[1] It has always been a problem using
the word “Black”. During the apartheid era, the liberation movement used Black
to refer to Africans, Coloureds and Indians – all those who were
disenfranchised by reason of not being white.
This is the sense in which in this text the world will be used. Black will not be used to mean “Africans”. That usage has the apartheid connotation that
derives from the perjorative Afrikaans reference to Africans as “swartes”.