- The City of Cape Town says it is struggling to address “inconsiderate driving behaviour from taxis across the entire municipality.”
- The City’s JP Smith expressed the City’s frustration at the lack of sting from the current National Land Transport Act (NLTA) to curtail irresponsible behaviour among taxi operators.
- According to Smith these new permits, or Operating Licenses (OLs), have removed the possibility of impoundment for most of the previous offences, now allowing only fines to be issued.
Nearly a year since disgruntled taxi operators brought Cape Town to a standstill in protest against the impoundment of their vehicles, the City of Cape Town says it is struggling to address “inconsiderate driving behaviour from taxis across the entire municipality.”
On a Facebook post dated Friday 7 June, Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith expressed the City’s frustration at the lack of sting from the current National Land Transport Act (NLTA) to curtail irresponsible behaviour among taxi operators.
“The public transport sector is regulated by the NLTA, but our municipality’s hands have been severely tied after new Operating Permits were issued to [taxi] operators,” read the post.
He said these new permits, or Operating Licenses (OLs), have removed the possibility of impoundment for most of the previous offences, now allowing only fines to be issued.
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“This was welcomed by unlawful and inconsiderate drivers within the public transport sector, as it is impossible for our Traffic Services officials to regulate all of the traffic routes that see these offences on a daily basis. And often drivers rack up hundreds of fines, while remaining untraceable,” Smith remarked.
Operating Licenses
OLs are regulated by the Provincial Regulatory Entity (PRE). They are awarded to applicants in the Public Transport Sector.
Responding to a list of questions by People’s Post Smith said following last year’s violent taxi protests and the “irresponsible” comments made by the Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) lodged an application in court, appealing against the City’s Traffic by-law.
“This hearing was scheduled to begin earlier this year but was then abandoned by the applicants,” he said.
Chikunga’s public statement made at the time was that “taxis in Cape Town were being unlawfully impounded through the City of Cape Town’s Traffic by-law”.
However, Smith noted that the City, under its Constitutional mandate afforded to municipalities, is authorised to implement its own by-laws [which were] not found to be inconsistent with national legislation.
National legislation only allows for the impoundment of vehicles where the vehicle is needed for further investigation, required for prosecution.
For all other offences committed under the NLTA, the national legislation only allows for such offenders to be fined.
“The new OL issued now has the condition removed that allows for impoundment of Public Transport vehicles, except in the case where such operators are conducting services along routes where they do not have a valid OL, or where they are operating with a valid OL but not on the route designated.
“Offences relating to unlawful driving behaviour, such as disregarding road traffic signs or even that of not having a valid driver’s license, is now not a valid reason for impounding the vehicle.”
For Smith, the new conditions issued on the OL were welcomed by unlawful drivers and operators, “and a sharp increase in bad driving behaviour was almost immediately seen”.
Speaking to changes made to the OLs, provincial Santaco spokesperson Mandla Hermanus said the new conditions are aligned with the NLTA.
“Minor infractions that falls under different legislation such as NRTA were removed. This has limited taxi impoundments to what is stipulated in the NLTA, as it should have been.”
Reflecting on their relationship with the City since the taxi strike, Hermanus added: “The relationship is still rocky, we have seen more incidents of unwarranted aggression by law enforcement officers when dealing with minibus taxi drivers, with insults being the norm. This has extended to how vehicles are driven in instances where they are impounded.”
Boosted traffic tech
This prompted the City to develop and install hardware in Traffic Service vehicles that immediately identifies vehicles with outstanding fines, warrants of arrests, unroadworthy vehicles, expired vehicles licenses, and more.
Smith also said he joined traffic officers in past weeks to witness this new technology in action.
“I was alarmed at how efficient the technology proved… just driving through the Cape Town CBD, the cameras (invisible to the naked eye), were picking up more than ten ‘wanted drivers’ every minute!”
For the officer, this means choosing the worst offender in the moment, but Smith hopes this tech boost being rolled out to all enforcement staff can start raking in all delinquent road users who have ignored their fines and court summons. “Even just one summons ignored is enough for us, we must arrest them and be sure they have their day in court,” he ensured.
