Mamabolo meets with taxi associations
Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo says he has met with concerned rival taxi associations following renewed taxi violence that has claimed the lives of seven people in the past two weeks in the province.
Mamabolo is appearing before the Commission of Inquiry into Taxi Violence. The inquiry started on Thursday in Parktown, Johannesburg.
Mamabolo says the violence in Olievenhoutbosch, Pretoria, is said to be over routes.
Mamabolo says the renewed violence is between the Alexandra, Randburg, Midrand and Sandton Taxi Association (ARMSTA), the Randburg United and Local Taxi Association, Pretoria Randburg and Soshanguve Taxi Association (PRSTA) and Zwanani Marabastad Taxi Association (ZMTA).
At the heart of the taxi, a feud is said to be a conflict over the control of the Olievenhoutbosch taxi route and surrounding areas. Mamabolo says he met with the associations alleged to be involved.
He says while ARMSTA maintains they are a peaceful association, who are being targeted because they work in lucrative routes, the other associations have painted them as a historically violent association.
The MEC says internal leadership battles have also been sighted within ARMSTA.