Hill-Lewis warns resumption of taxi violence will nullify agreement
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has warned the South African National Taxi Council that any violence would nullify the agreement between the city, the provincial government and the taxi sector.
Santaco in the Western Cape suspended its taxi strike on Thursday evening following an agreement with the city and the provincial government.
The eight-day strike was suspended on Thursday evening after lengthy talks over what Santaco believes to be the unfair impounding of their mini-bus taxis by the city.
At least five people have died while numerous industries were brought to a standstill.
Speaking during a media briefing on Friday morning, Hill-Lewis said the strike could have been avoided.
“This agreement will immediately be nullified if there is any resumption of violence related to the taxi industry in the future. It is slightly bittersweet in the sense that we did have a constructive proposal on the table last Friday, and the final proposal is basically identical to that one except for the additions around the strike notice and escalation mechanism. It does feel like there was an unnecessary extension, given that it could have been wrapped up in 24 hours”.
Santaco spokesperson Nceba Enge says there will be more discussions in the future.
“We are mindful of the fact that most things will be discussed in a task team, and we are hoping as Santaco that those discussions will be fruitful”.
“It was not nice for us to see the chaos that was taking place out there, to see the suffering of the economy of the Western Cape, but we are hoping that this will be a learning curve that discussions are the cornerstone in resolving the problems.”
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