Johannesburg taxi commuters are mostly stranded today as the South African Taxi Council (Santaco) embarks on a strike. Santaco Gauteng chairperson Ralph Jones said the taxi industry will march to the South African Taxi Finance offices in Midrand.
“This is to hand over a memorandum of grievances to the directors of the company. Some members of the taxi industry have been hard hit by the high interest rate of 28% and blacklisting due to payment of R15‚000 per month over 72 months. “We can’t take it any more‚” Jones said.
He advised commuters to seek alternative transport. “We apologise for any inconvenience that will be caused.”
The reality is that due to illegal blocking of the main highways in Gauteng also all individual commuter traffic came to a stand-still, preventing thousands of employees from reaching work in time or at all and a class action against the taxi union should be considered to ask for compensation of employees and businesses, which could amount to more than half a billion Rand. Maybe this will prevent such illegal and criminal behaviour in future!
At lunch time The City of Johannesburg issued a statement saying that says that its law enforcement agencies, including the JMPD, are dealing with the illegal blockades.
Good news for students: Most universities in Gauteng will allow students an opportunity to write exams if they missed it because of the taxi strike!!