Taxi strike - Some facts on how big the industry is, how much drivers make and the role in crime

 

Taxis are responsible for about 75% of public transport in the province and transport about one million passengers daily, according to the Western Cape Department of Mobility. They are also responsible for serving areas that are not often covered by other public transport.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Day 8 – Santaco accepts Cape Town mayor’s invitation back to negotiating table as taxi strike is extended

There are probably about 1,200 taxi associations nationally but they fall under two main umbrella organisations: South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) and National Taxi Alliance (NTA).

Santaco is leading the strike.

Santaco consists of over 123,000 individual taxi operators belonging to more than 950 minibus taxi associations nationally, according to court papers it recently submitted to the Cape high court. It is much bigger than the NTA. In an interview on Cape Talk, an NTA spokesperson said the organisation stands in solidarity with Santaco during the strike.

Taxis need an operating licence to provide a public transport service. These licences are regulated and approved by Provincial Regulatory Entities (PREs). Santaco said in its recent court papers that in order to apply for this licence, a letter of recommendation from a taxi association was required. And to join an association can cost between R10,000 to R200,000. (We’re not sure what differentiates the price across different associations.) In this way, a taxi operator must first be part of an association in order to access a route and an operating licence.

Precise data on how much the industry earns and spends is hard to come by. But this is what we could find:

The taxi industry generates at least R100-billion per year, according to a 2021 report by the Competition Commission. “These vehicles travel approximately 19 billion kilometres a year, and the most commonly used models are the Toyota Quantum Ses’fikile, followed by Nissan Impendulo. Most of these vehicles have a carting capacity of between 13 to 16 passengers,” says the same report.

In September 2022, former Western Cape MEC for Transport and Public Works Bonginkosi Madikizela said that in the Western Cape, the minibus taxi industry makes about R1.5-million per day, compared to R240,000 for Golden Arrow Bus Services and R35,000 for the MyCiTi bus service.

According to Associate Professor Andrew Kerr of the UCT School of Economics, over the past few years, there are likely between 15,000 and 20,000 taxi drivers in Cape Town. There are about 200,000 to 250,000 drivers nationally, so Cape Town is between 7% and 10% of the national total.

According to the Department of Transport discussion document from September 2020, of the 200,000 minibus taxis about 63,000 to 100,000 are operating illegally, i.e. without an operating license.