While the black smoke and the tangy, acidic smell caused by the burning of tyres at Imizamo Yethu Circle just over a week ago have dissipated, the grievances of Hout Bay Taxi Association (HBTA) members still hang in the air.
On Monday 5 September, about 50 protesters, allegedly members of HBTA, blocked the roads at Imizamo Yethu Circle, Main Road and Victoria Road with burning tyres.
News24 reported that three MyCiTi buses were stoned, with one of them petrol bombed, during the protest.
The protesters dispersed when police attending to the scene used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.
One day later, the City of Cape Town issued a statement, saying that they had met with HBTA “to discuss the association’s grievances and determine a way forward”.
According to the City, these grievances mostly centred around difficulties surrounding operating licence renewal applications, issues relating to routes Y12 (Hangberg to Imizamo Yethu) and Y13 (Imizamo Yethu to Claremont via Wynberg) and the MyCiTi bus service.
Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayco member for urban mobility, said the City had committed to assisting the association by facilitating some of the administrative bottlenecks the taxi association claimed they were experiencing with the operating licence application processes.
“Although these applications are made with the Provincial Regulatory Entity (PRE), the City committed to investigating and resolving some of the issues they have said to be experiencing,” said Quintas.
Referring to the association’s grievances regarding the MyCiTi bus service, Quintas claimed that the HBTA did not want MyCiTi buses operating in Hout Bay at all and wanted the City to only provide the MyCiTi bus service up until Llandudno.
“These are unrealistic demands on the City. It cannot be considered in any way and would be contradicting what I have always said as the Urban Mobility Mayco member: that Capetonians need to be spoilt for choice when it comes to various modes of public transport. There is no, and has never been, an embargo on amaphela or minibus-taxi’s operating in Hout Bay. Any legal and permitted taxi can still continue to operate in the area,” he said.
The taxi association’s grievance around the MyCiTi bus service can be traced back to the City Policy on Compensation of Minibus-taxi and Other Operators (policy number 13776) related to the roll-out of Phase 1 of the MyCiTi service. The policy was approved by Council in October 2012.
On the back of this policy, HBTA issued a combined summons (with a total of 52 plaintiffs) against the City in April 2019. Should the court rule in HBTA’s favour, each plaintiff could end up receiving payment in the region of R220 720 to R264 100.
Representing HBTA in this matter is Anneke Whelan of Anneke Whelan Attorneys.
Whelan says that HBTA is holding the City to its own policy which requires it to compensate taxi operators affected or partially affected by the implementation of the MyCiTi Bus service.
On 15 February 2014, the MyCiTi bus route from Cape Town to Hout Bay commenced. HBTA claims, the bus service traversed the route between Hout Bay and Llandudno on the way to Cape Town and back – effectively negating Route P35 for taxi drivers.
The MyCiTi bus route also traversed the route from Imizamo Yethu to the Hout Bay Day Hospital and back, partially affecting Route P34, and traversed the route from Imizamo Yethu to Shoprite Hout Bay and back, affecting Route P34.
“HBTA contends that they are entitled to compensation on account of the MyCiTi Bus Phase 1 affecting certain of the routes to which they have valid operating permits in accordance with the City’s own policy. In other words, the implementation of the MyCiTi Bus has negatively affected their business and the City’s policy provides that the City must compensate them. The City has to date not compensated the members of the HBTA,” she says.
Although this dispute goes back eight years, Anneke Whelan Attorneys only took up the baton mid-2017 when they became the legal team for HBTA.
“We were initially instructed to assist HBTA with their negotiations with the City of Cape Town, but the City kept moving the goals posts. After attending meetings with City representatives from time to time for almost two years, it became clear to us that there was no bona fide attempt on the City’s part to resolve the impasse. That is when we were instructed to issue summons against the City on behalf of members of the HBTA.”
The MyCiTi Phase 1 compensation matter’s court date has been set for 31 July 2023.
In the statement released by the City last week, Quintas said the City is awaiting the court’s ruling on this matter.
“Both the City and HBTA’s legal teams have also committed to meet to discuss certain impasses,” said Quintas.
Whelan, however, said this was not true.
“The City’s attorneys wrote to ask us yesterday (Tuesday 6 September) to request our clients’ to refrain from protesting and await the court’s decision. Our clients instruct us that the current protests are born from the fact that the City intends to implement Phase 2 of the MyCiTi Bus project on the route Wynberg to Hout Bay, while it has still not honoured its obligations in respect of Phase 1. We advised the City’s attorneys accordingly earlier today (Wednesday 7 September),” she said.
