[LISTEN] Taxify driver's death 'an act of revenge'

The burnt body of Ngcobo, who was also a student at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), was found in the boot of his car in Sunnyside earlier this month.

The acting Director of Public Transport at the Gauteng Department of Community Safety, Xolisa Mdingane, revealed this during a briefing of the Gauteng Portfolio Committee on Roads and Transport by Metro Police officials in the province. 

"Up until the incident on the 2nd of March 2018, the day before there was an attack on three metered taxis and three were damaged. And I think there was a revenge attack by metered taxis drivers who attacked a young man, a 21-year-old, they put him in the boot of a car and torched the vehicle," Mdingane told the committee. 

Ngcobo's brutal killing has been met with outrage. 

"We got intelligence from the SAPS as that these metered taxis are using acid to harm the drivers and they are also using petrol and we random searches," says Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) director Abel Modise. 

Mdingane says following Ngcobo's death, the provincial government met with Gauteng Police Commissioner Deliwe de Lange to try and bring an end to the violence between metered taxis, Uber and Taxify.

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"The plan is now in place, we are also meeting this month to expand the task team that is dealing with the violence to the north and the south, so that we are able to shorten the response time should there be incidents of violence. At the moment we are deploying officer at all flash points to defuse anything that might arise," he said.

Last week, the Department of Transport confirmed legislation that will regulate ride-hailing apps a such as Uber and Taxify will soon be implemented. 

The department's director-general, Mathabtha Mokonyama, said the legislation will broaden the scope of metered taxis to include Uber and Taxify.