Protests in Dunoon have been suspended following a meeting that took place last night between taxi drivers and associations and the community of Dunoon. This comes after several days of violent protests by taxi drivers against the law enforcement activities of traffic officials. The purpose of the meeting was to allow the taxi associations and drivers to apologise to the community of Dunoon for the damage inflicted.

The meeting resolved that taxis must return to their routes and “help communities”.

According to the Western Cape Education Department, six schools were forced to close on Tuesday.

“The meeting took a decision that the taxis must go back on their routes…it [the meeting] wasn’t very nice at the beginning and the community didn’t want to accept the apology, but in the end, they did and we agreed that the taxi owners must bring back the taxis and help the communities,” said ward councillor for the area of Dunoon, Lubabalo Makeleni.

“The meeting decided to suspend the strike…things are back to normal.”

Taxi operators are demanding that areas not be “locked down” by traffic officials carrying out operations and inspections.

“We also said to them in the meeting that we are not saying taxis must not be impounded with those who are operating illegally on the routes and that drivers who are not paying fines must not be arrested.

What we are saying, is that they must not lock down the Dunoon area like they had done – hence there was a strike from the taxis.

The strike was started by the drivers because the Dunoon entrances were locked by traffic officials.”

When asked about the destructive nature of the protests and who would be held accountable, Makeleni was unable to comment.

VOC