Taxi drivers in Jouberton Township outside Klerksdorp in the North West live in fear of being hunted by hitmen (Iinkabi) due to taxi violence that resulted in one driver being shot dead last Saturday, as taxi operators are fighting over lucrative routes between Jouberton and Klerksdorp. It is alleged that the late driver of the Sun City-Phelandaba route in Jouberton was traced down by unregistered securities whom certain taxi operators hired after the demarcation of routes to monitor those who did not obey and stick to their respective routes within the township.
One of the taxi drivers, Mpiliso Pindo, said it has been a month and a few weeks since there have been factions between the taxi operators in Jouberton, which has affected their business. "We would like to apologize to our passengers for the intimidation and any inconvenience caused by our factions within the taxi industry, whereby they are now afraid to use taxis as their public transport, and the situation has become worse since the appointment of security in different boundaries and their quarrels with some of our drivers, where the very same securities officers have now turned out to be the Iinkabi (hitmen), where they are now tracing to kill our drivers," he said.
Pindo further said they had a peace-making meeting on Tuesday afternoon, whereby all the drivers from five taxi associations with three routes in Jouberton met and reached the agreement of resolving their disputes as drivers by removing all the securities who have turned out to be hitmen in all the boundaries, indicating that all the previous meetings conducted by taxi associations and the North West Public Transport Intervention Team (NWPTIT) did not bear any fruits, with the last meeting being held last week on Monday by all the associations.
He has also reassured the passengers that it is safe to use public transport after Tuesday's meeting. Meanwhile, the Spokesperson of the South African Police Services (SAPS) in the North West, Colonel Amanda Funani, has confirmed that they have opened cases of malicious damage and arson at the Jouberton Police Station after three vehicles, a minibus taxi, a Toyota Condor, and a Sedan were torched.
One house was burned down in Jouberton Extension 1 (Hostel). Funani further stated that in Extension 7, at least one bedroom was burned in another house, with all the windows broken down, and one taxi and two sedans were torched. "This incident happened because of the taxi driver that was shot dead in Klerksdorp over the weekend, " she stated.
The suspects in all the incidents are still at large. Klerksdorp has turned out to be a hot spot for taxi violence. This type of incident happened five months after a similar incident occurred in Stilfontein, where two taxi operators were shot dead. Taxi operators from two associations, the Greater Stilfontein Taxi Association (GSTA) and the Khuma Stilfontein Taxi Association (KSTA), were also fighting over lucrative routes. This led to the intervention of the North West MEC for the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management, Sello Lehari, who visited Khuma in April and instructed the North West Public Transport Intervention Team (NWPTIT) to intervene in Khuma and Stilfontein taxi violence.
The NWPTIT is expected to conduct meetings with the Greater Stilfontein Taxi Association on Thursday, September 14, with the Khuma Stilfontein Taxi Association meeting scheduled for Friday, September 15, to reach a smooth consensus for both parties to work together and deliver a safe transportation service to the public.
