Cape Town – Taxi commuters in the Western Cape are facing an eighth consecutive day of strike as the taxi industry protests the impounding of minibuses by the City of Cape Town.
The taxi council, Santaco, said in a statement on Wednesday that it plans to seek an urgent court interdict to release the impounded vehicles.
“Santaco has engaged the services of lawyers to apply for an urgent interdict via courts for the release of all vehicles that have been impounded to interdict the City of Cape Town and the Department of Mobility from impounding anymore vehicles until all matters have been resolved.
“With this in mind, we appeal to all our members to be patient and allow us to complete this process.”
Santaco said it intends to launch the court application within 48 hours, and operations will resume once the process is completed.
STATEMENT
Taxi operations in the Western Cape remain withdrawn. We wish to apologize for the inconvenience that this causes to our commuters.
Read the full statement below. pic.twitter.com/tw6unU8A7P
— SANTACO (@SA_Taxis) August 9, 2023
Thousands of commuters have been left stranded since the strike began a week ago.
The transport ministry and the City are in disagreement over the legality of the impoundments, with the City claiming it’s using existing national legislation.
Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town’s executive mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, has announced that several thousand minibus taxis have been impounded and will only be released once the prescribed impoundment fees are paid.
Speaking during an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Hill-Lewis he would consider releasing taxis if evidence of unfair impoundments is provided by the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco).
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis tells @XoliMngambi that the city will not release any impounded vehicle despite Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga’s order that impounded minibus taxis be released without condition.
Watch: https://t.co/hXo8TaOyZo#Newzroom405 #TaxiStrike pic.twitter.com/wqCQ0IDsUy
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) August 9, 2023
“We will not release them. They will be released when the impoundment fee is paid. What I said is that if Santaco brings me examples of what they claim are examples of malicious or overzealous impoundments, then I will look at those examples and if we agree together that this is in fact an officer that has gone out out of bounds then I will absolutely work to release those.
“But I trust the professionalism of our officers and I think that they do a great job and I suspect we will find very, very few of those out of the many thousands of the impoundments that we have done,” the mayor said.
He said that the impoundment fees vary, with around R6 000 being required for a first impoundment and higher fees for repeat offenses.
“Some of these vehicles have been impounded several times because they are not roadworthy, they are dangerous, they have smooth tyres – whatever the case is,” said Hill-Lewis.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu