By OBAKENG MAJE
It has been a week since the operation at Taung Taxi Rank went back to normal. However, the Taung Taxi Association spokesperson, Tshidi Letlhaku said they are not happy with the decision.
According to Lelthaku, they had a consultative engagement with the Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM) mayor, Tumisang Gaoralwe, who allegedly forced them to return to the taxi rank or face the risk of their taxis being pounded.
“We had a consultative engagement with the municipality, however, the meeting was fruitless. We abandoned the taxi rank because of various criminal elements and some challenges we encountered. Now, the mayor has made a decision that we should return to the taxi rank.
“He promised that the municipal employees would go and clean the rank. However, this is hurtful because last week, our members were shot at by police, while we had an engagement meeting with the Taung Police Station commander,” he said.
Letlhaku further said, however, that matter was not even part of the agenda during a meeting. He added that the question remains, what will they say to the taxi operators because they represent them.
“Truly, I do not condone the issue of barricading roads because many livelihoods are affected. So, we will see what will be on the table in our next consultative meeting on 13 March 2024,” said Letlhaku.
The Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM) mayor, Tumisang Gaoraelwe said they have established a committee that will deal with all challenges raised. He said the role of the committee will be dealing with selling of drugs, buying and selling of suspected stolen properties or items and those who steal and rob people in town.
“The wrath of the law will take place against all transgressors. This committee will be led by me and other stakeholders, including taxi associations and hawkers. One of the things we agreed on is that the municipal cleaners from the department of services will thoroughly clean the taxi rank before taxi operators ascend to it.
“Some of our plans are long term and we will have a follow-up meeting on 13 March 2024 at the municipal offices at 10am. From now on, there will be strict access control at the rank and we will not allow anyone to enter the rank if s/he is not a commuter or a hawker,” he said.
Gaoraelwe said things will be done differently from now on in terms of access control at the taxi rank. He said they have also involved taxi owners because they have realised that one of the contributing factors to crime is that some of the taxi operators are allegedly involved in these criminal activities.
“We had our own intervention measures through municipal patrollers, but we have experienced budget constraints. We can only do this much as the municipality, like ensuring that public toilets are working, taxi rank is clean and the patrollers manage access control.
“Remember, even though the taxi rank belongs to the municipality, the primary users are commuters and taxi owners. There were allegations that some of the taxi owners are part of the syndicate that is operating within the rank.
“So, this needs to be addressed internally, because taxi drivers and owners cannot manage the challenges alone. So, we need a joint effort from all other stakeholders,” said Gaoraelwe.
Meanwhile, the North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management spokesperson, Lucas Mothibedi said: “The department has been alerted that, there’s been challenges at the Taung Taxi Rank. We have coordinated with police and they have briefed us that they have been attending to some of these issues.
“Our intervention team from the department also picked up some of the issues. We are in constant engagement with all parties involved, including taxi operators and the police to resolve this issue expeditiously.”
The Guardian 