Mamabolo calls for law enforcement to investigate if recent burning of taxis in Jhb related to criminality

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Gauteng Transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo says law enforcement agencies must investigate any criminal activities related to the burning and vandalising of taxis at the weekend.

Violence erupted in the Johannesburg CBD on Saturday in which four minibus taxis were torched and six others damaged.

The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has obtained an order interdicting violence between the Witwatersrand African Taxi Owners Association and the Nancefield Dube West Taxi Association. Mamabolo says the parties are working towards stability.

“There was an agreement that the law enforcement – because they are the authority entrusted to deal with acts of criminality – they must get to the bottom of this horrendous, very backward and barbaric criminal acts that we have seen. There was a commitment to peace and stability which is why calm has returned. This is also strengthened by the court interdict. The parties have agreed that we need to go to the root cause of the problem which is the routes and that is a matter we are going back to,” says Mamabolo.

VIDEO: Concern over Johannesburg taxi violence: MEC Jacob Mamabolo

Analysing taxi violence in SA

Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Boikanyo Moloto says one cannot analyse the taxi industry in isolation from the South African context.

She adds, “So generally in South Africa there is a major distrust in the state and the perception that the state is not doing what it supposed to do, so that is why you see examples of communities form their own neighbourhood watches, to mitigate the perceived inadequacies of the SAPS. So that is the same with the taxi industry, they have come up with their own method of maintaining social order.”

Moloto on possible solutions to curb taxi violence in SA:

 

 

a year ago