Durban - Seasoned researcher and activist against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Lisa Vetten said on Wednesday that Uber South Africa needed to adopt a strategy that its United States counterpart did by producing an annual safety report.
Vetten explained that the report would go a long way in protecting women who use E-hailing platforms to travel.
She was speaking during an Uber roundtable discussion on increasing safety for riders and drivers. The meeting was convened by the head of mobility operations for SSA at Uber, Kagiso Khaole.
“I think one of the things Uber SA should think about is perhaps to take a leaf out of the US. To start thinking of producing safety reports. If you look at the reports produced by the US, there's so many cases of what women go through on Uber,” Vetten said, making reference to a 2017/2018 report by Uber US.
“That would be a very useful thing for South Africa to think about, getting those kinds of safety reports to try and see what’s going on.
But safety needs to be multidimensional, as the number of attacks on Uber, Bolt and E-hailing drivers has increased, she said, highlighting the attacks in Pretoria.
Vetten explained to the panel how she was once caught up in an instance where her driver was attacked, threatened and followed by minibus taxi drivers in Pretoria.
“Safety needs to be multi-dimensional, not only towards the sexual harassment and violation side of things but should also be in terms of the threats and harassment by meter drivers,” she said.
Public-Private Transport Association (PPTA) founder Vhatuka Mbelengwa told IOL that women using the apps could be better protected if the app companies vet the drivers properly.
“As a former driver, I know what it's like to have people jump in the car and be scared. It is not a nice feeling. But we want a situation where people can get into our vehicles knowing we can be identified and knowing they can find us if anything happens so that we can be held accountable.
“Those of us who are certain that we have no criminal intention want some sort of vetting put in place urgently,” Mbelengwa said.
After reports emerged at the start of the month about Bolt suspending a driver accused of rape, Bolts SADC manager Gareth Taylor explained that permits are only granted to people once a criminal background check has been run.
IOL