The shutdown of Eastern Cape roads by taxi operators over four-month payment delays for scholar transport services, which caused chaos in the province yesterday, has been suspended. This after a meeting in East London between taxi council leaders and provincial transport leaders, including Oscar Mabuyane who is said to have joined telephonically.
A Santaco taxi association faction led by prominent taxi operator Gabs Mtshala has called on the Eastern Cape government to withhold the grant paid to the industry to keep its operations afloat.
Dozens of armed taxi operators issued a chilling threat to the EC provincial transport department on Monday in an ongoing dispute over payment for scholar transport.
A prominent Eastern Cape taxi operator, who himself survived a drive-by assassination attempt, has stepped forward to outline the reasons behind the slew of taxi killings of Santaco members in the province. He said the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in the Eastern Cape was divided into two groupings, with claims that warring factions were ordering the killing of those opposed to the process of electing new structures of the provincial taxi council.