Durban - The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in KwaZulu-Natal says e-hailing taxi operators should have operating permits so they can be regulated by the government like everyone in the transport and logistics industry.
Santaco KZN spokesperson Sthembiso Shangase said they expected the government to lead the process of regulating e-hailing operators as such a move would deal with illegal operators in the public transport system.
During his budget speech in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature last week, KZN Transport MEC Sipho Hlomuka expressed concerns about tensions between the taxi industry and other operators, including e-hailing operators.
“A new and disturbing trend is the elimination of e-hailing operators in the province. There is also a challenge between the taxi industry and scholar transport. The killings of three protectors of a Tongaat taxi boss and two E-hailing operators occurring a few minutes apart talks to the brazen nature of the public transport industry,” said the MEC last week.
He committed his department to working swiftly and efficiently at ensuring that only legal operators were working in the public transport sector.
“As part of building stability in the industry, we have issued 45 816 operating licences in the past five years, including the beginning of 2023, which includes a total of 1 172 being issued for scholar transport operators to acquire legal operating licences,” said the MEC.
Santaco said there were no tensions with scholar transport operators as they were “part of us”.
Shangase pointed out that as scholar transport operators had licences, it was equally important for e-hailing services to be regulated.
“We do not want the public transport sector to be reduced to a field where everyone does as they please because that creates room for criminal elements to enter the field. This is why we want the government to take the lead on the matter,” Shangase said.