South Africa

How the Gauteng government’s decision to disregard Soweto taxi agreement led to the latest standoff

16 Mar 2025

The Gauteng government has had a decade to sort out a deadly dispute between rival Soweto taxi associations Nanduwe and Wata. A recent court judgment highlights how its failures kicked off the latest chapter in the feud.

On Monday, 10 March 2025, tensions flared again between the Nancefield Dube West Taxi Association (Nanduwe) and the Witwatersrand Taxi Association (Wata) in Soweto.

The associations have been warring over routes for around a decade, with multiple murders linked to the feud. On 10 March, a Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) vehicle responding to a taxi blockade hit two pedestrians, leading to their deaths, as it swerved to avoid a car that failed to stop.

The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport denied it was responsible for the latest flare-up in the ongoing taxi war, which, according to reports, might have claimed as many as 160 lives and has previously seen the government suspend all services on the disputed routes.

However, an order from the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg on Monday, 3 March illustrates how the government’s clumsy attempt to resolve the matter appears only to have prolonged the crisis.

Read more: Warring Soweto taxi associations — yet again — commit to ending violence

Court review

The latest standoff stems from a 16 January decision by the Gauteng Provincial Regulatory Entity (GPRE) to award the contested Soweto routes to Nanduwe.

Those routes are:

Mofolo Kwa-Mthethwa Informal Taxi Rank to Jeppe Station Taxi Rank;

Dube Station Taxi Rank to Jeppe Station Taxi Rank;

Makhetha Garage (Phefeni) Taxi Rank to Jeppe Station Taxi Rank and Uncle Tom’s Hall Taxi Rank to Jeppe Station Taxi Rank.

It said only Nanduwe could load passengers and end trips on the routes, while other associations with routes passing through such areas could offload passengers.

Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela called for calm while a statement following the GPRE decision added: “The decision brings the department a step closer to concluding a long and painful period.”

Wata took the decision to court, and in his ruling on 3 March 2025, Judge Stuart Wilson was scathing.

He said the GPRE appeared to have ignored an ongoing, court-ordered arbitration and had not “advanced anything like a coherent justification” for the 16 January decision to give Nanduwe the routes.

“On the face of it, the GPRE’s 16 January decision exceeded the parameters of the complaints referred to it, and interfered with the terms of an order, binding on the MEC, to have the dispute between Wata and Nanduwe referred to arbitration. Without any sense of why GPRE acted as it did, the decision is prima facie unlawful,” Wilson said.

He added that Nanduwe began preventing Wata from operating on the contested routes soon after the 16 January decision was announced.

While SAPS and the JMPD were mandated to enforce the decision, Wilson said it was unclear whether they have implemented it “or have simply stood by while Nanduwe did so itself”.

The High Court ordered that Wata could continue to operate on the routes while it appealed against the GPRE decision and the arbitration continues.

Soweto standoff

“That is what we did when we came back to work last week, Thursday [6 March],” Wata spokesperson Hamilton Miya said.

On 10 March, Nanduwe blocked the roads and prevented Wata taxis from operating.

Miya expressed astonishment over the road blockades, attributing them to a claim by Nanduwe that it had not received or even seen a copy of the 3 March court judgment. While Miya said he had his doubts about the claim, he noted that Nanduwe has continued to insist it is unaware of the ruling.

Gauteng SAPS confirmed that Nanduwe based its hostilities on the claim that it had not seen the court order and, therefore, could not be deemed to be bound by it.

“On 10 March 2025, when the other taxi association blocked roads claiming no knowledge of the court order … law enforcement agencies were on the ground. Only one case was reported of malicious damage to property emanating from that road closure and no one has been arrested,” Gauteng SAPS spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said.

Miya told Daily Maverick that later that week, a leader at the Orlando Police Station spoke to the rival taxi operators and told them that even if they do not respect each other, they must respect the authority of the police and desist from violence.

“As Wata, even now we are still saying what we said when they closed the roads, that we invite them so that we can work together,” Miya said.

Nanduwe did not respond to Daily Maverick’s repeated requests for comment, but the association’s Nanduwe’s Ngcobo was quoted by EWN as saying: “We have never worked in the same routes as Wata. We must make this clear that we do not benefit from working alongside them. We can’t share routes.”

Government defends decision

Gauteng Department of Transport spokesperson Lesiba Mpya said: “It’s worth noting that the conflict was not sparked by the decision of route reaffirmation. It is more than a decade-old conflict between Wata and Nanduwe, but the matter has been litigious over the period under review [a decade long] with courts’ judgments that favour one over the other under different judges.”

He continued: “The process of the 16 January 2025 [decision] was a continuation of a litany of meetings held between the department and industry leadership including affected associations, the preceding one being in December 2024 reaffirming a longstanding decision which was verified by the department in 2005 and 2015 that specific routes of contention are registered and licensed under Nanduwe.”

Regarding the latest interim interdict in favour of Wata, the provincial government said it noted the decision.

“Much as we are advised that interim orders cannot be appealed, we anticipate that one of the associations will bring forward a review application,” Mpya said.

“We do, however, respect the rule of law and are in discussions with departmental legal division to chart a formidable way forward.”

The provincial government said it had increased law enforcement visibility on the ground following the court order and the latest tensions.

Read more: We need to have an elevated discussion about the taxi industry

“We have also taken a zero tolerance approach to the instigation of violence, intimidation and instability. This is so to ensure the safety of community members in the area and to avoid further bloodshed,” Mpya said.

Read more: Report finds rogue associations and outdated systems fuel taxi conflict

He said the MEC has also instituted a crisis committee on operating licences and backlogs comprising all stakeholders, including the taxi industry. Mpya said the committee sits every fortnight.

“The MEC intends having long-lasting solutions that will benefit the community and particularly commuters as well as people travelling into the area in due course,” he said.

SAPS said police in Orlando, in collaboration with the Johannesburg District Taxi Violence team, JMPD and Gauteng Traffic Police, are enforcing the court order to allow both Wata and Nanduwe to operate on the routes. DM

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South Africa

Court review

Soweto standoff

Government defends decision