Santaco and City of Cape Town’s taxi impoundment agreement on shaky ground

Tensions between the City of Cape Town and taxi mother body the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) continue to rise despite having an agreement to find a lasting solution to issues. 

The municipality has stuck to its vow and continues to impound minibus taxis on the roads, prompting Santaco to communicate in the middle of the night that they would not attend the Taxi Task Team meeting scheduled for Tuesday. (The message came at 10 pm on Monday).

This past weekend alone, 14 taxis were impounded: eight on Friday and six on Saturday. This was done in compliance with the agreement with Santaco according to JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Western Cape taxi strike updates

Santaco on the other hand, seem to think otherwise as their reaction to the impoundments indicates that they either do not understand the agreement or they deliberately misread it. 

Ivan Waldeck, treasurer-general of Santaco over the weekend during a prayer session, said they were promised that no vehicle will be impounded until the work of the Taxi Task Team is done. 

It was in the same meeting that veteran anti-apartheid UDF activist Reverend Dr Allan Boesak heavily criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for not going to the Cape Town communities that were affected by the taxi strike. Ramaphosa attended the Netball World Cup final held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre but his Women’s Day visit to Khayelitsha was cancelled due to security reasons. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: W Cape taxi strike Day 6: Ramaphosa cancels Khayelitsha event

“We have a president but he doesn’t have time to come and address Cape Town, to speak to the City to say ‘this is your national authority that you have. Is your national authenticity that is at stake because Cape Town is not a separate city.. it is part of South Africa and I speak to you as your president’. Did he do that? No, but has time to go and sit at an auction and buy yet another bull worth R3.5 million.”

While Daily Maverick has not seen the actual agreement, the municipality communicated that impoundments will continue being carried out under the National Land Traffic Act. 

Regarding the six taxis that were impounded on Saturday, Daily Maverick has seen a letter sent to Santaco Secretary Ryno Saaiers by a senior City mobility official stating that the vehicles were not meant to be impounded but instead fined. 

“The 6 taxis impounded will be released with no impoundment fees, but the fine for the offence code still stands. So they will have to pay the fine, but there is nothing to pay at the pound,” reads the letter. 

“Apparently, these vehicles were impounded because the negotiations and final agreement happened so quickly that the message hadn’t filtered down operational command properly. City has ensured now that all officers are properly informed.” 

Despite this letter, Smith said only one was contrary to the agreement with Santaco (for significant overloading — 4 passengers more than the act permits) and this vehicle was released because it hadn’t been processed yet.

“The other taxis were impounded for the serious offences as agreed upon with Santaco and these are impoundments under the NLTA for (a) vehicles driving without an operating license, or (b) on the incorrect route, or (c) without a drivers license or PDP, or (d) which are not roadworthy.” 

Smith said that a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on the exercise of the discretionary power provided for in the National Land Transport Act will be finalised by the Taxi Task Team within the next 14 days. This is the task team Santaco decided not to attend, with its first meeting scheduled for Tuesday 15 August. 

“The Taxi Task Team will further define a list of additional major offences in terms of which vehicles will be impounded and define less serious offences for which we will continue to issue fines. No one is above the law and while the SOP is still being developed, we cannot allow any road users to do as they please,” said Smith. 

“We also cannot allow leadership in Santaco to misrepresent the facts of the agreement to taxi owners or drivers (e.g. by telling them that no vehicles may be impounded as was done during this past weekend) as this creates the conditions for confrontation on the streets when officers implement the exact agreement Santaco accepted last week.” 

Santaco’s Saaiers said Monday’s meeting involved discussion on the impoundments of the weekend where vehicles were impounded under cases not covered under the agreement. 

“The meeting further requested the postponement of the planned Task Team meeting that was scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday. This was needed to allow the leadership to engage with the members as to what precisely was agreed upon in the agreement with Government.” 

He said they also agreed that a court intervention into the issues of the dispute between the parties was tabled and it was agreed that this option should still be explored.

MEC for Mobility Ricardo Mackenzie confirmed that the task team was scheduled for Tuesday due to the urgency of resolving the issues around vehicle impoundments. "Santaco sent a request yesterday for this meeting be rescheduled as they need to engage the Primary Associations regarding the impoundments of the past weekend. We are in the process of identifying a new date for the Task Team meeting.

"The Western Cape Government and City of Cape Town agreed to use the existing meeting slot and venue booking for government officials to work through the details of the agreement and next steps. The national Department of Transport was also invited to join the intergovernmental meeting today. We are committed to prioritising this work and ensuring that government is properly prepared to address the challenges identified by the industry."

Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility responded that part of the agreement was to jointly commit to a period of 14 days to clarify all the issues.

There was a "commitment by all stakeholders (SANTACO, WCG, and the City) to systematically work through individual provisions in the National Land Transportation Act, and together reach a consensus on which carry direct implication for the safety of commuters and other road users – and therefore warranting impoundment, and those that do not directly correlate with safety risks, and warranting penalty of a fine only."

Quintas said that based on comments made to the media over the weekend it was evident that there were some misinterpretations of the agreement, "and for that reason we fully support SANTACO’s decision to first convene a meeting to engage internally with their members".

"Meanwhile, the City and the Western Cape Government decided to proceed with the meeting time scheduled, in the interest of doing as much foundation work as possible. We remain committed to transparency among all MBTTT members and look forward to their presence at the next sitting, and working together to finalise this process," said Quintas. DM

This is a developing story. Further comments and responses will be added as they land.