Italian taxi strike, and more from around the world
Moving, surprising, inspiring, terrifying, shocking … This is a selection of images from our planet, over the last 24 hours.
Maverick Life Editors
10 October 2023
SA National Taxi Council members went on strike in response to a new Cape Town by-law that led to increased taxi impoundments, revealing longstanding conflicts with the Western Cape government over the taxi sector’s role.
Moving, surprising, inspiring, terrifying, shocking … This is a selection of images from our planet, over the last 24 hours.
Passengers can be left stranded far from home when traffic officials swoop and impound offending taxis.
The City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility Summit kicked off on Tuesday, and a key sentiment was that taxi operators needed to start thinking of themselves as ‘business owners’ rather than ‘taxi bosses’. For that, they need the government’s support.
At the eleventh hour, the ANC and two other organisations pulled out of participating in the EFF’s protest in Cape Town on Monday, saying they didn’t support calls for a shutdown or the EFF’s claims that it organised the event.
The EFF has called for a ‘shutdown’ in the Western Cape on Monday, 2 October, over a number of issues, including ‘unjust taxi impoundments’. But, unlike the August taxi strike, the ‘shutdown’ isn’t being organised by the industry itself.
Golden Arrow – which receives a state subsidy of about R1-billion – has blamed rising operational input costs for its latest fare increase.
The Minibus-Taxi Task Team’s three-day Imbizo proved productive as all parties — the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Government, and Santaco-WC — reached an agreement that prioritises commuter safety and outlines a detailed process for continued cooperation.
The strike was called without notice and badly affected businesses, learners, clinics and government services.
But the controversial Mayco Member received a standing ovation from DA members for his handling of the taxi strike.
Commuters and the public can breathe a sigh of relief after the Western Cape Division of the High Court declared an agreement signed between Santaco and local government to be an order of the court. Santaco is now unlikely to strike despite the growing tension between the taxi council and City of Cape Town officials.
Among those who died in the taxi strike were a 36-year-old worker from Gugulethu, an Atlantis taxi owner, a 33-year-old LEAP officer, a man transporting people to work and a 40-year-old British doctor.
Santaco has failed to get an interdict against the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government and the court has made the 10 August agreement between the parties an order of the court.
The first Shared Governing Principle of the new Multi-Party Charter for SA states that the seven opposition parties in it are committed to the Constitution, the rule of law and equality before the law. This shows the power of the issue of ‘law and order’ in our society and how it could be used as a campaigning tool. It is also a powerful unifier for parties with diverse constituencies.
Families of two ‘thin blue line’ officers, who were killed during gang warfare and the volatile taxi strike, mourned the passing of their loved ones at an emotional memorial service in Cape Town.
Prasa has snubbed City of Cape Town’s attempts to take over management of Metrorail.
In the eleventh hour, the taxi council Santaco decided to withdraw from the first taxi task team meeting following impoundments of their taxis over the weekend. City of Cape Town and Western Cape government officials will now use the scheduled time to work through the details of its agreement with Santaco. “We look forward to their presence at the next sitting, and working together to finalise this process,” said Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility.
The Western Cape Education Department has called on parents to ensure their children go back to school after the taxi strike, which on one day saw 71% of learners miss classes.
Chasing the taxi bosses’ targets makes it hard to be compliant with traffic legislation, drivers tell GroundUp.
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