“Minister of transport Fikile Mbalula has been accused of flying to the wrong province in a bid to broker peace in ongoing taxi wars – arriving in the Eastern Cape instead of his intended destination of KwaZuluNatal.”
“Mbalula, accompanied by his staff, was on a mission to bring an end to the bloody violence in KwaZulu-Natal after a Translux bus driver was shot dead and the driver of a second bus wounded recently.”
“However, he arrived at the East London industrial development zone on Friday, with Eastern Cape transport MEC Weziwe Tikana-Gxotiwe in tow – only to be told by taxi bosses that no bus driver had been killed in the province.”
“Mbalula’s spokesperson vehemently denied the minister had made an embarrassing blunder, but taxi bosses said this was very much the case.”
“Mbalula said during a meeting with the Eastern Cape taxi bosses that the bus driver was killed in the Alfred Nzo district, the SA National Taxi Association (Santaco) chair in that region, Sandile Sifolo, said.”
Sifolo said: “I corrected the minister and told him that the killing took place in Umzimkhulu [in KwaZulu-Natal] and he was embarrassed and apologised, saying that he didn’t mean to accuse us [taxi drivers] of killing people.”
“Sifolo said local taxi operators had taken advantage of the minister’s presence to speak to him about longstanding issues in the local industry.”
“A taxi boss who attended the meeting, and spoke on condition of anonymity, said he and other local operators had known days before the meeting that Mbalula had been “misled” about the location of the killing, but deliberately decided not to warn him.”
“We saw this as a nice opportunity to raise our own challenges we face,” he said.
“So the meeting went on because we had a lot to discuss.”
“So the meeting went on because we had a lot to discuss.”
“Eastern Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana said there were no recorded reports of attacks on bus drivers in the province.”
