Cape Town – The Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta) has retracted a threatening statement it made to e-hailing and private taxi shuttle drivers transporting workers late at night that they may not operate along their routes.
The about-turn comes following a meeting with Transport MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela yesterday.
A notice was issued by Codeta yesterday to the transport industry, which was circulated on social networks.
Seen by the Cape Times, the message, written in isiXhosa, translates as: “We would like to inform staff transport operating between 9pm-4am that should you be found operating beyond those hours, you will get a heavy fine”.
It was mainly directed at Toyota Avanza drivers, Uber drivers, and other private cars.
Madikizela said he was inundated with calls and messages regarding the notice yesterday.
“I had a meeting (yesterday) with Santaco and Codeta. There were two issues that we discussed, the first one was the shooting that took place in Bellville and I want to put it on record that all of us condemn this in the strongest possible terms.
’’We agreed to work with law enforcement to apprehend the culprits, and, secondly, I was inundated with calls and messages after Codeta issued a notice which was very disturbing.
“After lengthy discussions, Codeta agreed to retract the notice. There were a number of issues that were discussed which resulted in Codeta issuing that notice and I am happy that there is an agreement to retract it and there is a commitment to work towards finding some resolutions in those concerns,” said Madikizela.
Codeta secretary Lesley Skhuphela said the notice was “riddled with errors”.
“We had a brief discussion about the notice, we did put forward our position as Codeta in terms of the notice.
“It was badly written and we saw the errors this morning, but it was already out there so we agreed to retract that notice and will take further action,” said Skhuphela.
Uber spokesperson Mahlodi Molekane said Uber’s technology was open and non-exclusive and they were keen to offer it to a broad number of taxi drivers to boost their chances for profit.
However, intimidation against people who want to use the Uber app or any other app is unacceptable, Molekane said.
“The safety of our riders and driver partners is a top priority.”
Cape Times