Western Cape police said escalating taxi and gang violence in Cape Town will not derail their security preparations for next week’s local government elections as authorities move to contain the deadly bloodshed.
The violence, linked to a route dispute between rival taxi associations, the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) and the Cape Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association (CODETA), over the Delft, Langa and Epping corridor.
It has claimed about a dozen lives, left others wounded and disrupted public transport, fuelling fears among commuters.
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Police and City of Cape Town officials met urgently on Thursday to strengthen their response to the shootings and address tensions within the taxi industry.
Provincial Police Commissioner Sizakhele Dyantyi said police have sufficient personnel to secure the elections while maintaining day-to-day operations and responding to emerging threats.
“Because we are not going to pull people from other operations, local government elections have its own plan. Now, the emerging threat is why we also met, in terms of ensuring that we look at all other aspects that we might be needing to address this particular threat without disturbing the plan that we have for the local government elections.”
Meanwhile, Mobility MEC Isaac Sileku and the City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility MMC, Rob Quintas, met with the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) and CODETA on Thursday to discuss the escalating violence.
CATA did not attend, citing prior commitments and another meeting is planned for Monday.
Sileku said the provincial government is preparing an urgent court application to clarify operating rights.
This, while also planning an inquiry into alleged violations by identified taxi associations.
“We met with the taxi industry because enough is enough. No dispute over routes or operating rights is worth a human life. Together with the city, we are strengthening law enforcement and pursuing legal action to restore stability.”
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