Several facilities across East London had to close on Thursday amid a taxi operators’ strike over the alleged non-payment for scholar transport contracts between operators and the Eastern Cape Transport Department (EC DOT).
“Please note that our Eastern Cape Provincial Office is closed today, on Thursday, 2 May 2024, as a result of a taxi strike within the greater areas of East London,” noted the South African Council for Education.
The University of Fort Hare shuttle was also cancelled, with the SRC noting that classes and assessments needed to be postponed “as the safety of students is the number one priority”.
The SPCA East London said only four of its staff members were able to get to work because of the strike.
In a statement, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in the Eastern Cape, led by chairperson Bishop Yolel, said while they acknowledged issues of non-payment, they were participating in the strike.
“The council has heard through rotating social media audio clips that some public transport operators intend to stop everyone from accessing basic services on the day. While we acknowledge the existing challenges surrounding government regulation and support of our industry, we believe there should be more cordial avenues, pursued to ensure that harm isn’t caused as concerns are being registered.
“We confirm our concerns over the non-payment of Scholar Transport Service Providers and that the matter is being attended to. We are committed to ensure the safety of all commuters wishing to utilise our services with the help of law enforcement,” Santaco in the province said.
According to EC DOT, the strike was illegal and non-payment was because of “technical challenges”.
“EC DOT wishes (to inform) operators and the public at large that the challenge is not unavailability of funds, but rather some technical challenges that it continues to tackle.
“The department says it is also worth noting that while it takes a degree of responsibility for the delay, some of it is down to the boycott of the signing of contracts by some operators when they were called to do so back in January and in February, while part of it is down to challenges relating to Sars among some operators,” the department said.
DA MPL on the Roads and Transport Committee in the legislature, Marshall Von Buchenroder, said that scholar transport should be moved from the transport department back to the department of education who had the second highest budget in the province, after health.
“Give that function back to them, then the transport department is only the implementing agent.
“Further, we’ve come from a system where you paid an operator per child transported, now we pay per km which results in milking the pot because there are some reports that some children don’t even get picked up. If you pay per child, instead of per km, you can verify how many children are transported,” he said.
Cape Times