Cape Town commuters are living in unnerving discomfort after murmurs circulated about the second coming of a taxi strike.
Will Cape Town taxis go on strike again? – Here’s everything we know
While, on Monday, Swisher Post debunked the fake news spread by various sources, including several reputable publications, it must be highlighted that tensions still exist between the City of Cape Town and taxi associations.
Reports of an impending strike sent waves of worry reverberating across the metro. For the most part, this was premised on the City’s impounding operations, which resumed two days after the provincial government and taxis reached a settlement.
However, the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) was quick to dispel the fake news, making it categorically clear that “there is no strike action planned by the industry.”
“What is being circulated around is fake news,” SANTACO noted in a statement released on Monday, 14 August 2023.
This sentiment was corroborated by City of Cape Town MEC for public safety JP Smith who confirmed that messages of an impending strike were “intended to cause misinformation and confusion.”
“Such messages only result in unnecessary panic and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” Smith said.
Therefore, at least as far as we know, Cape Town taxis should resume normal operations on Tuesday, 15 August 2023.
SANTACO pulls out of taxi task team AGAIN
This, however, does not, in any way, suggest that the relationship between the taxi associations and the provincial government has improved.
In fact, since the end of the taxi strike on Thursday, 10 August 2023, relations between the two parties have soured.
Take, for instance, SANTACO provincial treasurer Ivan Waldeck’s comments on eNCA, on Sunday, 13 August 2023, where he fuelled panic with these sharp words targeted at the City.
“We have an urgent meeting. Just pray that there in that meeting the way forward will be different. We decided on Friday that we are going to take the city to court. So, we are going to submit our court order and interdict against the city and the MEC.”
While Waldeck did not directly hint at the potential return of the Cape Town taxi strike, he did expose existing tensions between both parties.
In response to speculation around the second coming of a strike that claimed five lives, resulted in the damage of infrastructure, torched Golden Arrow buses and the looting of businesses, JP Smith revealed that “all previously expressed details of the negotiation agreements remain in place.”
“These include the agreement from SANTACO that no strike may be called without first escalating any concerns to the Mayor and Premier, and that no strike may be called without first giving the public a notice period of at least 36 hours,” he noted.
Now, the latest updates developing from the palpable tensions between the provincial government and the taxi industry indicate that SANTACO has reportedly pulled out of the task team meeting scheduled for Tuesday, 15 August 2023.
The crucial meeting, according to JP Smith, was aimed at separating “all traffic offences (all of which currently permit for impoundment at the discretion of the traffic official) between serious offences which Traffic authorities will impound for and less serious offences which they will issue fines for (unless it becomes a repeated offence in which case impoundment may resume).”
“When it comes to the request by the taxi associations to release impounded vehicles, the City agreed to engage taxi associations in respect of impoundment notices which the taxi associations assert are for minor offenses, during the 14 day period,” Smith wrote.
It’s worth noting that SANTACO’s decision to pull out of the taxi task team was the precursor that led to the first taxi strike.
According to Daily Maverick reporter Velani Ludidi, SANTACO needs “to allow the leadership to engage with the members as to what precisely was agreed upon in the agreement with Government.”
To better understand the row, here’s what JP Smith listed as the collective agreement between the provincial government and the taxi industry:
- Impoundments under the National Land Transportation Act (NLTA) will continue for vehicles driving without an operating license, on the incorrect route, or without a driver’s license, or which are not roadworthy.
- We have agreed that the Taxi Task Team will further define a list, within 14 days, of additional major offences in terms of which vehicles will continue to be impounded in future. This will take the form of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to guide enforcement staff on the exercise of the discretionary power provided for in the NLTA.
- Our focus in the task team will be to ensure that all traffic offences which impact commuter safety remain as major offences. Road safety for commuters and other road users is a non-negotiable, a position the City has not budged on.
- The task team will similarly compile an agreed-upon list of minor offences, which do not have commuter safety implications, and which will not be impoundable. The City continues to believe it will be able to demonstrate to Santaco that we have already been following this distinction for some time.
- Importantly, if Santaco believes that any of their taxis have been impounded for these minor offences, then they can produce the relevant impoundment notices and the City will then make representations to the Public Prosecutor to support the release of these vehicles.
- Santaco has agreed that never again will they call a strike during the middle of a working day, and that they will always give at least 36 hours’ notice ahead of planned strike action. We should never again see a repeat of thousands of people being forced to walk home.
- Secondly, before calling strike action, the Task Team will now have a dispute escalation and resolution clause, to escalate disputes directly to the Premier and Mayor before a strike action will be considered.
It remains to be seen what will culminate from the rising tensions between taxi associations and the provincial government.
This is a developing story.