Cape Town - Another taxi operator has been shot and killed this afternoon, just a few hours after an agreement between warring taxi associations, the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) was signed.
Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said Milnerton police are investigating a case of murder.
Swartbooi said the police rushed to Freedom Way, Joe Slovo Taxi Rank, at about 1pm. Upon arrival, they found the body of a 56-year-old man lying on his back with visible gunshot wounds to his face and chest.
"The unknown suspects fled the scene and are yet to be arrested. The motive for the attack is possibly taxi-related," said Swartbooi.
He said the victim was declared deceased on the scene by the medical personnel.
Transport and Public Works MEC Daylin Mitchell's spokesperson Ntomboxolo Makoba-Somdaka confirmed the shooting incident.
Makoba-Somdaka said after she heard of the incident, she contacted Cata and Codeta leaders, and both associations assured her that the killing was not related to the current taxi violence.
The associations, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and Mitchell, made progress in an effort to resolve the taxi violence sparked by a dispute between associations under the arbitration of the provincial and national transport departments.
On Monday, they agreed to aim to end their turf war that has disrupted transport in the Western Cape for at least four weeks.
However, Makoba-Somdaka said the recent killing was pure criminality.
"I must emphasise that, while we are working together to restore peace and calm, we will not compromise on the rule of law," she said.
She said the murderers and criminals must be brought to justice, and was not within Transport and Public Works’ mandate to investigate criminal activities or crime, but they have adopted an approach of supporting the police and law enforcement in whichever way to bring perpetrators of crimes to book.