The Mutale Taxi Association and taxi drivers reconciled after an initially heated meeting, held at the Mutale Taxi Association's main rank last Sunday morning (29 May).
The meeting was organised after angry taxi drivers of the association blocked the road between Tshilamba and Thohoyandou last Wednesday (25 May). They blamed the Mutale Taxi Association, which they belong to, for not preventing taxi drivers from Musina from illegally operating on their routes and taking their passengers.
The protesting drivers blocked the road at Khubvi village, next to the Ngwedi Bridge, with bricks and taxis from 07:30 to just after 15:00 in the afternoon.
The drivers also claimed that their association was treating them like slaves. One of the taxi drivers who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were being fined left, right and centre without given an opportunity to defend themselves. "We are paid between R1 500 and R1 800 a month, but if you make a mistake, like taking passengers on in a wrong area, the taxi marshal reports you to the association. When you get there, you are fined R500 without telling your side of the story. If you make three mistakes in a month, you go home empty handed. They don't follow labour laws at all. Some members of the association have taxis operating on our routes without permits, but nothing is being done about that," he said.
A taxi owner from the Nancefield Taxi Association, who is also based in Musina, said many wrongs were happening within the Mutale Taxi Association. He said that he could understand those drivers' frustration, but that they were not dealing with their issues correctly. "They must try to fix their association first, before talking about the problems of the routes," he said.
In answer to the question of whether their taxis (from Musina) were illegally operating on the protesting taxi drivers' routes, as they claim, he replied that this was an issue the Mutale Taxi Association should have solved a long time ago. "Our permits allow us to upload passengers from Musina to Thohoyandou, and from Thohoyandou to Musina. But our drivers are now taking passengers from Thohoyandou to Tshilamba, and turn back to Thohoyandou, which is wrong. Why is the Mutale Taxi Association letting our drivers abuse their permits like that? Do they expect us to go and monitor our drivers in their own area?" he asked.
However, after the meeting on Sunday, the general secretary of the Mutale Taxi Association, Mr Mphigalale Tshimangadzo, said they had addressed most of the problems the taxi drivers had. "The most important grievance is the issue of routes, and we will meet with the Nancefield Taxi Association soon to iron the matter out. They have been operating on our routes without the necessary permits, but we have a very good relationship with them," he said.
Tshimangadzo denied the allegations that their drivers were being fined without a chance to defend themselves.