The City of Cape Town impounded 14 taxis over the weekend, which they claimed was done in compliance with an agreement with the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco).
Safety and security mayco member JP Smith said eight taxis were impounded on Friday and six on Saturday.
“Only one was contrary to the agreement with Santaco (for significant overloading – four passengers more than the act permits) and this vehicle was released because it hadn’t been processed yet.
“The other taxis were impounded for the serious offences as agreed upon with Santaco and these are impoundments under the NLTA for vehicles driving without an operating licence, or on the incorrect route, or without a driver’s licence or PDP, or which are not roadworthy,” Smith said.
The “Cape Times” reported this week that the City and Santaco’s agreement to halt the taxi strike seems not to have been as successful as thought, as taxis continued to be impounded at the weekend, further straining a “sour” relationship.
The parties also have different interpretations of what they agreed upon, with Smith taking to social media at the weekend to correct “inaccurate statements” over the agreement.
This comes as the 14-day taxi task team was expected to meet on Monday to discuss the “new regulations” and a new chapter on how minibus taxis would operate in the province.
Smith said a standard operating procedure (SOP) on the exercise of the discretionary power provided for in the National Land Transport Act will be finalised by the taxi task team within the next 14 days.
“The taxi task team will further define a list of additional major offences in terms of which vehicles will be impounded and define less serious offences for which we will continue to issue fines. While the SOP is still being developed, we cannot allow any road users to do as they please,” Smith said.
“We also cannot allow leadership in Santaco to misrepresent the facts of the agreement to taxi owners or drivers (by telling them that no vehicles may be impounded as was done during this past weekend) as this creates the conditions for confrontation on the streets when officers implement the exact agreement Santaco accepted last week.”
This is a developing story.
Cape Times