Posted: 2017-06-21 07:35:37
Just to throw a cat amongst the pigeons.
The Taxi industry is a necessary evil in South Africa at present. Unfortunate but necessary.
No Taxis means tens of thousands of people, domestics, call centre agents, teachers, petrol pump attendants, shop workers, nurses ad infinitum. Name a profession and there are some that use taxis out of necessity. There is no alternative.
The problem is not the Taxi Industry but the circumstances that demand its existence. The lack of affordable public transport alternatives.
Yup they are taking advantage of their monopoly, however that is far from unusual in any sector of business when the chance arises. Bakers and construction companies have been hauled over the coals. The elite of corporate South Africa, Tiger Brands, WHBO, Bidvest, Adcock Ingram, all of them as wrong as the Taxi association but we don't care.
We don't care because Tiger Brands, WHBO, Bidvest and Adcock Ingram don't inconvenience us with a lack of domestics, call centre agents, teachers, petrol pump attendants, shop workers or nurses.
We expect a R40b industry employing 200k of the great unsophisticated unwashed, those mainly without the benefit of a quality education to maintain higher standards than our corporate elites and cry foul when we are inconvenienced for a day.
Yup it's a pain in the ass. Yup some of the 200,000 plus drivers could do with a slap now and then but so could a large portion of BMW, Mercedes, City Golf and Toyota drivers.
15m trips a day nationwide is what they manage to do without charging a fortune or, contrary to popular opinion, making a fortune. There are some that do, but they are a minority of note. Name me five Taxi millionaires in the country.
68% of all public transport trips to work and 70% of individuals who attend educational institutions are estimated to use minibus taxis.
They do this with a taxi fleet made up of vehicles that are on average 9 years old. They have to get new taxis, have to. And they have to using a monopolised finance system taking advantage of an already financially distressed labour pool.
Now I will not say for one second that there are no issues with the taxi industry but the fact remains we are at present fucked without them. They do a job, do better than any current alternative and no one seems to appreciate what a phenomenal feat of logistics they perform daily.
The idiot in that 12 year old Hiace streaming black smoke who cut you up at the robot, ran a red at the next one and shot a colleague at the next needs far more than a slap, but he is not everyone that brings manpower to the cities.