The taxi industry’s planned stay-away in Cape Town has been called off after a lengthy meeting with the government on Tuesday.
On his first day in office, newly appointed MEC for Mobility Ricardo Mackenzie called an urgent meeting with leaders of the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) in a bid to stop the stay-away on Wednesday.
This after the umbrella body announced a week ago that they would park their cars for the day.
The meeting was attended by Premier Alan Winde and Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
Some of the issues the industry highlighted included the impounding of minibus taxis, the lifting of the moratorium on granting metered-taxi operating licences and squabbles over the B97 route.
Mackenzie said: “I reached out to Santaco to arrange a meeting where we can discuss these issues and reach an amicable agreement. I will listen to Santaco’s grievances. If they are being unfairly prejudiced, I will work to put that right.
“My priority is to deliver safe and sustainable transport to which our people have a right.”
Shortly after the meeting Santaco’s secretary Nceba Enge told Weekend Argus they had cancelled the stay-away with the belief that the new MEC would address their concerns.
“We sat with him and he told us that he will send us his commitments later today which will be communicated to the media once all the information has been received.
“We would like to tell everyone that we are going to be on the road (on Wednesday), operating as normal, and that the stay-way is off.”
Weekend Argus