Cape Town commuters still reeling from August’s devastating taxi strike were triggered when public transit operations were seemingly halted in the central deck on Tuesday afternoon.
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Panicked commuters flooded social media, warning of tensions between taxi operators and Cape Town metro police in what many believed was a stand-off similar to the fiery encounter that sparked the previous unrest.
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However, in response to the mounting speculation, City of Cape Town MEC for Public Safety JP Smith released a statement shooting down claims of a brewing taxi strike.
According to Smith, “concerns arose after pictures started circulating on social media suggesting that the minibus taxis were engaging in a blockade of the Station Deck public transport interchange.”
“Enforcement services immediately investigated and determined that the Provincial Taxi Regulator was in the process of taking action against illegal operators allegedly loading passengers at the entrance to the Deck,” Smith explained.
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When this article was published, law enforcement units from various departments, including SAPS, had converged at the entrance of the station deck to clear the congestion and allow for normal taxi operations to resume.
Therefore, at this juncture, Cape commuters can rest assured that there is no taxi strike.
Thursday’s developments come a day after the Minibus Taxi Task Team concluded a three-day ‘imbizo’ with an agreement “that safeguards commuter safety and outlines a clear process for continued cooperation.”
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“All parties — the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Government, and SANTACO-WC — sat for three days to systematically work through the enforcement consequences for each of the operating licence conditions that we committed to collectively review. The national Department of Transport was also included in this process,” the joint statement read.