Family battling to regain financial lifeline from taxi association

Cape Town - A family is fighting to regain their financial lifeline which was allegedly taken away when their patriarch took his last breath in their Hanover Park home 13 years ago.

The Isaacs family were in the taxi industry for more than 20 years and they knew no other form of employment. While Mogamat Isaacs never owned taxis, he owned three operating permits, which, according to his family, he hired out to other taxi owners who did not have permits of their own.

The eldest son Muneeb said his father had an indefinite permit which was meant to be given to him upon his father’s death, and two permits which were renewable annually to the deceased’s wife. But Muneeb said all three permits fell into the hands of the taxi association, leaving the Isaacs family without any source of income.

The Isaacs family said they have been trying for over eight years to get back what is rightfully theirs.

“My father drove on the Hanover Park to town route for over 20 years, everybody knew and loved him. He hired out his permits to operators who had taxis on the route, and that is how he raised us and put food on the table for all those years. Now that he is gone, I as his first-born, was supposed to get his permits but the association chairman took them just before my father passed away. He never returned them although he had acknowledged the fact that the permits should be given to me as the eldest son,” he said.

Spokesperson of the Department of Transport, Jandre Bakker, said the Western Cape Provincial Regulatory Entity (PRE) had not been made aware of this matter.

Bakker confirmed that the permits are transferable to another person, but an application to a taxi association would need to be made.

“Section 58 of the National Land Transport Act (Act no.5 of 2009)(NLTA) allows for a permit/operating licence to be transferred to another person. In the case of a minibus-taxi type service, the person taking transfer must apply for membership of the resident association,” he explained.

Bakker said the Section 58(3) stipulates that a person applying to take transfer of an operating licence or permit must have the written consent of the current holder of the operating licence or permit, or of that holder’s executor. The PRE will require the executor or the executrix to sign a declaration at the PRE Offices.

Muneeb said he and his family were never made aware of the application process and the chairman of the association had assured him that the permits were in his name.

“He (chairman) took me to a meeting at the civic centre after my father passed away and after the meeting he just told me that I was now the permit holder, no one ever informed us about applying to anyone for our own family permits,” he said

Achmat Dyason, chairperson of the Park City Taxi Association, said he had no comment on the matter.

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