Taxi strike leaves Gauteng commuters stranded
The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) kept its promise to bring large parts of Gauteng’s public transport system to a halt on Monday morning.
Thousands of commuters had to find alternative transport or miss work as taxis refused to operate amid its disagreement with the government over Covid-19 funding.
Today marks day of the Santaco Gauteng #TaxiShutdown. MTN taxi in Johannesburg CBD is quiet as commuters are left stranded pic.twitter.com/x2E4xSRDzs
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) June 22, 2020
The strike action comes amid growing tensions between taxi associations and government over the lockdown regulations and subsequent revenue shortfall faced by the sector.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced a R1.1 billion aid package on Friday, but taxi associations claim this is not nearly enough to cover the whole industry.
Taxi ranks in Johannesburg were mostly deserted, except for Bree Taxi Rank in the CBD.
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Taxi manager Siphiwe Zondi told Jacaranda FM News that the Farraday Taxi Association has not informed them about any strike.
Zondi said they will be transporting workers until they are told to do otherwise.
"If the strike is on then we have not been told anything about it. We are working as usual because nobody told us that taxis should not be operational.
"We aren't under Santaco, we are with the NTA (National Taxi Alliance) and UTAF (United Taxi Associations) and they have said nothing," Zondi said.
While Johannesburg remained calm throughout the morning, the metro police in Tshwane metro had their hands full with taxi drivers blockading roads and intimidating motorists.