Cape Town - A political analyst has cautioned a repeat taxi strike is still possible in the next few weeks if the City remains adamant about impounding taxis, making South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) feel aggrieved.
The warning comes as the taxi task team, composed of representatives from the Province and the City together with leadership of Santaco-Western Cape, today starts a twoweek process of drawing-up a list of major and minor offences for which vehicles can either be impounded or fined.
At a media briefing on Friday, where some details of the strike-ending deal were shared with the media, Santaco first deputy chairperson Nceba Enge argued 14 days would not be enough to sort out “some of the issues on the table”.
During the briefing, Premier Alan Winde revealed that as part of the deal Santaco agreed to never again call a strike during the middle of a working day, and to always give at least 36 hours’ notice before a planned strike action.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the taxi task team now had a dispute escalation and resolution clause, to escalate disputes directly to the premier and mayor before a strike was called.
CPUT political science lecturer Dr Trust Matsilele said both parties had no choice but to make some strategic concessions to end the strike.
Matsilele said these concessions satisfied the need to make sure there was a restoration of normalcy by making sure that transport was back on the road and people got back to work.
“What will be important is to observe what happens over the next few days and weeks. I’m sure the City is likely to continue impounding cars, especially cars, which they believe should not be on the road. This will mean we’re likely to see Santaco protesting those actions.
“Santaco might call for a new strike and we might find ourselves back where we were last week, in two or three weeks.”
Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Jacques Moolman urged the City and Santaco to build on the positive momentum created by the suspension of the taxi strike.
Moolman said: “We would be fooling ourselves to think that this is anything other than a shaky truce; the real work remains to be done.”
Moolman said the Cape Chamber had helped mediate the agreement that saw the parties return to the negotiating table and this illustrated the importance of involving civil society in dispute resolution.
“As the voice of business, we have close ties to both the taxi industry, and regional government authorities. Our chief executive John Lawson was able to engage directly with the government and taxi leaders, and help resolve points of disagreement.”
Western Cape Property Development Forum chairperson Deon van Zyl said: “We encourage all parties to continue to discuss and acknowledge the very important role the taxi industry plays in public transport and the economy of our province.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za