The South African National Taxi Council and City of Cape Town officials have come to an agreement. Picture: Armand Hough/African News Agency (ANA)
The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) has called off the stay away by minibus taxi drivers.
The strike followed an impasse between the union and the authorities over the clampdown by city officials against traffic offenders. Taxi operators had their vehicles impounded, with the city officials insisting they would only be released after operators paid the impound fee.
Commuters can breathe a sigh of relief as they will be able to make use of taxi services from Friday morning.
Santaco Western Cape Chairperson Mandla Hermanus confirmed the news and said that they would “go back to the task team to finalise the issue they had not yet agreed on.”
@SA_Taxis WC Chairperson Mandla Hermanus called an end to the stay away and said taxi operations will continue from tomorrow.#Taxistrike #CapeChamber pic.twitter.com/1V1TaQOn1q
— Chamber of Commerce (@Cape_Chamber) August 10, 2023
Hermanus added that they were able to agree on the fundamental issues.
Hermanus also apologised to the public for all the distress and inconvenience that the stay away caused.
The announcement comes after Santaco made an about turn earlier on Thursday and agreed to meet with City of Cape Town officials to discuss issues around the impounding of its vehicles.
The call for a stay-away by the taxi association escalated into violence and chaos on the city’s roads.
IOL reported earlier that even piqued the interests of international media after a British doctor was shot and killed during the taxi violence in Nyanga, Cape Town last week.
International media outlets, including The Telegraph and The Daily Mail, have reported that a 40-year-old award-winning trauma and orthopaedic consultant was killed “when he took a wrong turn from the airport and drove into Cape Town's Nyanga township”.
IOL