Cape Town - Two of Cape Town’s taxi associations - Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) - have confirmed a joint march to the Western Cape Premier Alan Winde’s offices on Thursday morning.
The South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) spokesperson Gershon Geyer confirmed on Thursday Codeta and Cata will “present a memorandum containing a set of grievances that they have as an industry, especially those operating in townships”.
The list of grievances include, but were not limited to:
- Impoundments of taxis
- Unfair requirements for release of impounded taxis
- And various other issues directly affecting the Cape’s taxi industry
The march to Winde’s Wale Street offices in Cape Town was approved after the associations submitted their application.
As a result, none of the routes associated with Codeta and Cata will be operational and has been assured the march will be peaceful.
“They also made a decision that none of their vehicles will be operating tomorrow [Thursday, March 24],” Geyer said.
“Cata and Codeta gave their assurances that there will be no interference and intimidation of the other regions that will be operating as per normal,” he said.
Other transport services - such as trains and buses - are expected to continue as normal.
A total of 2 000 taxi operators are expected to gather at 10:30am in District Six and make their way to the meeting point from Nyanga and Khayelitsha from 7am.
The memorandum will handed over at 11:30am.
Traffic to the Mother City’s CBD is expected to be disrupted and commuters using Codeta and Cata’s service are advised to find alternative transport services.
There is a possible taxi strike tomorrow in Cape Town. Commuters are advised to make alternative arrangements as minibus taxis will not be available if the strike goes ahead.
— Veve (@LudidiVelani) March 23, 2022
Meanwhile, residents are up in arms about the possible effects the taxi march will have on businesses and workers.
Load shedding, pandemic, potential bicycle ban, taxi strike. What’s a small business in Cape Town to do?
— Up Cycles (@UpCyclesZA) March 23, 2022
IOL