Cape Town – The City of Cape Town intends to sue the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) for damages resulting from an eight-day strike earlier this month.
According to News24, the mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said that all departments are calculating the full cost of damage to vehicles and infrastructure, along with the additional policing costs incurred during the violent strike.
“The City is busy assessing and quantifying the full cost of damages to its vehicles and infrastructure, and the cost of additional policing over those days of unacceptable violence.
“We have every intention of pursuing civil action to recover these costs and to make sure those responsible for the violence and damage are held both criminally and financially liable,” the report quoted Hill-Lewis as saying.
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The strike was triggered by the City impounding numerous vehicles for various infractions.
Santaco disputes the City’s allegations and denies responsibility for the damages, asserting that they instructed members not to engage in violent activities.
The police reported that around 466 vehicles were damaged during the unrest, resulting in six deaths.
GroundUp reported recently that the strike cost the Western Cape economy an estimated R5- billion and at least R18-million in damages in the City of Cape Town alone, according to Western Cape MEC for Mobility Ricardo Mackenzie.
Mackenzie said 38% of businesses had been unable to sustain their daily activities, 72% suffered revenue losses, and 19% lost more than half their daily income.
Poor areas were impacted the most, with 16% of businesses indicating that workers could not travel from Khayelitsha, he said.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
