The Nancefield-Dube West Taxi Association (Nanduwe) has accused the Gauteng Department of Transport of failing to resolve its long-standing conflict with the Witwatersrand Taxi Association (Wata).
Joseph Ngcobo, spokesperson for Nanduwe, told the Saturday Star, that the provincial government had commissioned an investigation into the ownership of their highly contested routes, which had resulted in skirmishes between the two associations.
He added that the recommendations of the investigation report, even though being clear on who owns the routes, were never implemented and kept hidden by the province.
In 2019, the then member of the transport executive council, Ismail Vadi closed down the routes following violence between the two associations.
Gauteng MEC Jacob Mamabolo, in 2020, dissolved the executive committees of both the associations following deadly conflict that resulted in the murder of at least two people.
Last month, scores of Soweto commuters were left stranded when the routes were temporary closed following a three-day strike by the two taxi associations.
Ngcobo said had the recommendations of the report been implemented, it would have resolved all the issues between the two associations as the routes belonged to Nanduwe, and not Wata.
White City, Mofolo, Mncube Drive in Dube and Orlando West are the four routes that have sparked multiple taxi violence wars in the past ten years.
“We have proof that these routes belong to us. We have the report that has been kept hidden by the previous MECs who have kept its content and its recommendations a secret.The government took the decision to verify the routes in 2015.
“In fact, we are the ones who called for the government to verify these routes because we know they to belong to us. The report came back and said indeed these routes belong to us,” he said.
Ngcobo said after the process of verifying these routes, there was a high court ruling in their favour, which too, was ignored.
“After the high court judgement, we asked for the province to implement this ruling, but they failed to do so. The court order was clear, but the department said it does not have enough police to monitor the routes. We tried to hire private security to help us monitor the routes, but government stopped us and we withdrew the deployment of private security guards,” he said.
Kedibone Diale-Tlabela, the current MEC for transport through departmental spokesperson, Lesiba Mpya in response to a Saturday Star query, indicated that the report which Nanduwe claims to favour them, only did so partly.
“The report referred to is the section 25 and 79 inquiries where the outcome partly favoured Nanduwe. The outcomes were not implemented because WATA appealed and its appeal was upheld, and the Provincial Regulatory Entity (PRE) was ordered to start the section 79 inquiry afresh,” Mpya said.
When it comes to interventions, Mpya indicated that there was an arbitration agreement which spelt out the measures to resolve these issues.
“There is an arbitration agreement which was made by an order of the court on 3 September 2022, where the MEC, WATA and Nanduwe agreed that the dispute between the two associations be referred to arbitration and all court orders, interim and final be abandoned in order for the arbitration process to finally resolve the dispute.
The current status is that the matter is at arbitration and all the parties have filed their pleadings to be determined by the arbitrator,” he said.
Attempts to get comment from WATA were unsuccessful at the time of going to print, but the association through its spokesperson, Hamilton Miya told the Sowetan that it had ownership over the contested routes since 1972, until a faction broke away to merge with Nanduwe.
“We did not mind sharing the routes, in fact, we still do not. Instead, over the years Nanduwe has been trying to completely take over our routes by intimidating us and pushing us out of our own routes,” Miya said.
Saturday Star
siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za