Durban - A police task team has been established to tackle taxi violence on the South Coast which has claimed the lives of 24 people since the start of the year.
Last week Police Minister General Bheki Cele held a meeting with taxi associations in KwaZulu-Natal in Ugu on the South Coast to discuss the problems that lead to the violence.
Cele said 24 people had been killed in the Ugu and Harry Gwala Districts.
Crime experts and the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) this week welcomed the establishment of the task team.
Cele said the death toll due to taxi violence in the area had more than tripled compared to the same period last year where five people were killed in the area.
“If there is no special intervention we might reach crisis proportions, so we can’t fold our arms and say this is a transport problem only. This is a safety issue that needs police intervention and the buy-in from other departments to deal with some of the underlying causes of this violence.”
Cele added that the bloodshed must be stopped and has assured the taxi industry stakeholders that the multi-pronged team should be set up and operational in the coming weeks.
“The fact that some taxi associations can collect millions of rand annually through member fees which is not taxed and the association's officials can decide how to use that money which is unaccounted for, cannot be allowed to continue. It is clear we as government and especially as law enforcers need to clean house, clean this industry at the level of ‘izinkabi’ (hitmen) because they are being paid by someone and also we need to clean up at the level of ownership.”
Guy Lamb, a criminologist at Stellenbosch University, said task teams were crucial when there have been flare-ups in taxi violence.
“Tasks teams are useful in stabilising the situation and also show that the government and in particular the police are taking the situation seriously. The task team will also create a sense of accountability in finding the perpetrators of the violence and what is driving the violence. It is also crucial to establish where resources are being generated from – whether it is legal or not.”
Lamb added that a task team was a short-term solution and a more permanent solution was needed.
“The concerning thing is that as helpful and important as it is to have a task team, these teams only seem to be established when there is a flare-up of taxi violence and are used to stabilise the situation and seem to fall away when the situation is resolved. It is a short-term solution. In the long run there needs to be a permanent solution where the issues of taxi associations disputes are addressed nationally and solutions are found.”
Mary de Haas, KwaZulu-Natal violence monitor said that while the idea sounded good, there had been many taxi task teams with very little results.
She said the only task team that had some success in the past 20 years was headed by the late Goldstone Commissioner investigator Thulani Vilakazi. It made arrests and got convictions. It was shut down when he retired.
“Who is going to select the police team members, and who will they report to? I am asking this because it is not the minister’s or MEC’s job to construct task teams of any sort. This is an operational matter that should be handled by the provincial commissioner.”
Sifiso Shangase, KZN spokesperson for Santaco, said it welcomed the engagement with the minister of police.
“We welcome the plan by the police minister to create stability in the taxi industry. Some things we remain concerned about is the amount of cash exchanged in taxis.”
THE MERCURY