What is the City’s plan?

Samkelo Krweqe, Hout Bay-Wynberg Taxi Association

I’m writing this in great sadness.

We, the drivers of Hout Bay, have been asking for taxi permits to transport people to the Cape Town CBD. Now MyCiTi has been on strike. What is the City doing to assist us and the passengers who travel to Cape Town every day?

I would like to know the following:

* What plans do the City have for people who get to work under very difficult circumstances?

* Why is the City impounding our vehicles?

As drivers, we provide transport for our brothers and sisters who have only one way to town because MyCiTi is on strike, but we have lost more than R200 000 because our vehicles were impounded.

The City is not providing solutions. They are providing problems. When they need to decide they don’t. They wait for people to fight, and then they quickly call the police.

The transport issue needs to be sorted out by people involved in the transport industry.

What is their plan? When will they stop taking our money illegally?

* Richard Bosman, the City’s executive director for safety and security, responds:

The MyCiTi strike cannot be used by public transport operators to promote illegal activities.

The complainant is well aware of the conflict that exists between the legal and illegal operators as this was the root cause of the taxi violence that plagued Hout Bay during the course of this year.

The public transport operators with legal operating licences for this route will not take kindly to the City of Cape Town allowing illegal public transport operators to transport passengers during the duration of the strike. This will lead to renewed violence in the area.

The Traffic Department is conducting operations as per usual, and should any taxi be found operating without the required operating licence or operating contrary to the conditions of the operating licence, the vehicle will be impounded.