By Yonela Mlambo
Cape Town - Government efforts to restructure and formalise the taxi industry were bound to be a dismal failure because it turned a blind eye to the historical injustices that led to the establishment of the industry.
The mission to restructure the taxi industry post-colonialism relegated the industry to being a thunderbolt that fell from heaven to disturb a peaceful South African society, and therefore ought to be confined.
The taxi industry emerged out of the devastation of land dispossession.
Forcefully removed from the inner cities to townships (yet there is nothing about them even near to being towns) the black working class were confronted with transport frustrations.
Committed to imposing the sting of depravation and misery on to African people, the colonial government was at pains to further frustrate the African working class through not recognising the taxi industry as a legitimate industry.
It was not until 1987 that the colonialist government took it upon itself to recognise the taxi industry as a legitimate industry with the passing of the Road Transportation Act.
The act did not explicitly recognise the taxi industry. It did not address the historical injustices of black people –land dispossession and the forceful removal from the inner cities that led to the establishment of the industry.
The post-colonial government led government transformation reforms post-independence in 1994, but failed to transcend the colonial government’s Road Transportation Act in reforming the taxi industry.
The most significant commission established by the post-colonial government in attempting to reform the industry was the national taxi task team.
The taxi recapitalisation programme was borne out of the national taxi task team, which among many other things sought to subsidise taxi owners in purchasing new, safe vehicles.
Thus far the woes the industry is currently facing are informed by a lack of fundamental attempts to dismantle the historical injustices that led to the formation of the industry.
The working conditions minibus taxi drivers are confronted with cannot be resolved with the enforcement of the “rule of law”.
It is necessary to restructure apartheid spatial planning to tackle the overloading and reckless driving, because then people would live nearer their workplaces.
Cape Times
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