Taxi wars in South Africa
Minibus taxi drivers are well known for their disregard for the rules of the road and their proclivity for dangerously overloading their vehicles with passengers.
[4] Due to an effectively unregulated market and the fierceness of competition for passengers and lucrative routes, taxi operators banded together to form local and national associations.
Prior to 1987, the South African taxi industry was highly regulated and controlled, with Black people being refused permits under apartheid laws.
After 1987, the industry was rapidly deregulated, leading to an influx of new minibus taxi operators keen to make money from the high demand for their service.
In the years leading up to the end of apartheid, the National Party government is believed to have actively encouraged this violence so as to destabilise its political opposition.
Along with growing political pressure, the 1976 Soweto Riots prompted the apartheid government to form a commission of inquiry into the transport industry.
In the years to come, rival organisations, such as the South African Long Distance Taxi Association (SALDTA),[10] would be formed.
[5] In the absence of official controls, the now-growing taxi organisations began using their influence to make more money to intimidate competitors.
However, the government's attempts at re-regulation were actively resisted by the now extremely powerful "mother" organisations that controlled the taxi industry, leading to an escalation of violence between 1998 and 1999.
[20] Taxi operators are known to extort private passenger services in an effort to force them out of the market and reduce competition.
[22][23][24] In response to legal violations by mini-bus taxis the City of Cape Town has introduced policies to more effectively clamp down on the industry.
[25] A number of arson attacks on passenger trains in Cape Town have been linked to the minibus taxi industry.
[28] "Between January 2021 and February 2022, over 150 incidents of shootings, stonings and other acts of violence and intimidation directed at bus drivers and passengers were reported to South African Police Service (SAPS) in the three provinces.
