The Western Cape government said that coordinated efforts were in motion to end deadly taxi violence in Cape Town.

Transport bosses have been meeting with warring taxi associations to try and quell tensions.

There was a spate of shootings last week in which several people were killed and wounded.

Premier Alan Winde: “We are in the midst of a pandemic of COVID-19 and we need people to be able to get to work, our frontline workers, we need to be able to scrape along with the economy that we have at the moment. This taxi violence has to end.”

The premier stressed that commuters and innocent bystanders were falling victim to the violence.

“It is simply unacceptable that a dispute over routes is now undermining the well-being and safety of our residents and we will not allow this violence to continue,” Winde said.

‘ENEMY OF COMMUTERS’

Taxi associations were the enemy of public transport commuters, said the City of Cape Town’s JP Smith following two attacks on Golden Arrow buses on Monday morning.

“Its associations and other bodies have become an enemy of the commuters. They were once relevant in the legislation when the regulation was in early stages, when self-regulation was thought to be viable, but now quite frankly, they must be removed from the legislation – the regulation entity must have a relationship with the taxi licence applicants.”