Transport and Public Works
Whether his Department has taken any preemptive measures to ensure that taxi violence does not occur on any route or at any taxi rank in the province in future; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
The Department of Transport and Public Works, together with key stakeholders, has implemented a number of pro-active measures to address some of the root causes of taxi violence on routes and at taxi ranks. These measures include:
[1] Briefings by- and information sharing with SAPS Crime Intelligence to assess and advise on intra- and inter-association disputes;
[2] Promoting and leading the process towards the establishment of an integrated task team with the SAPS, National Prosecuting Authority, SARS and other agencies to investigate the root causes and perpetrators of taxi-related crimes and killings;
[3] Pro-active engagement of independent mediators to resolve disputes between parties before such disputes boil over into violent conflict;
[4] Improving systems and procedures to ensure that operating licence [OL] applications are processed as speedily as possible so as to ensure effective enforcement of operating licences and conditions. By ensuring that there is no backlog in the processing of operating licence applications, enforcement authorities may confidently enforce the law, which makes allowance for the impounding of any vehicle that operates without a valid operating licence;
[5] Inquiries by the Provincial Transport Registrar in terms of Section 7 A [20] of the Provincial Land Transport Act Amendment Law, 1996 [Law 8 of 1996] where associations are called to account for any transgressions of the Standard Minimum Constitution for minibus taxi associations and its members;
[6] Suspension or withdrawal of operating licences, in terms of Sections 78 and 79 of the National Land Transport Act, of taxi operators who habitually break the law and/or the conditions attached to their operating licences;
[7] Leading and driving the establishment of inter-governmental structures with local transport planning and enforcement authorities to advise such authorities on transport planning matters and dealing with OL applications and enforcement.
