Taxi industry seeks fuel subsidy

"The fuel price keeps rising. At least 70% of the price consists of levies. Taxis provide an essential service and deserve a subsidy," he said, adding that industry representatives would seek to meet with government officials to discuss a fuel subsidy.

Earlier, NTA chairman Mohanoa Francis Masitsa accused the government of not taking the taxi industry seriously. "It did not even get a mention in the transport ministry's budget speech in Parliament, to which the NTA was invited," he said.

Masitsa said the organisation had not received a response from African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe after asking for the party's intervention shortly after the budget was tabled.

Scrap Siyazi says NTA

He accused the taxi scrapping agency Siyazi Consortium of being in cahoots with rival taxi organisation, the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco). According to Masitsa, Siyazi offered Santaco 30% of the shares in the consortium.

The NTA wanted the transport department not to renew Siyazi's contract, which lapses at the end of August, claiming that there wass corruption within this scrapping business.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu reacted by saying it was possible Mantashe's office received the letter, but that he had no knowledge of it. "The secretary general receives a lot of letters in the form of complaints which he attends to himself," Mthembu said.

He advised the NTA to arrange for a meeting with Mantashe.

Santaco said it did not want to get involved in "the politics of pointing fingers". Spokesman Philip Taaibosch said Santaco did have a 30% stake in the scrapping consortium. "That stake is held in the agency on behalf of the country's taxi industry. The benefit of that is seen across all nine provinces, where operators are the main beneficiaries," he said.

The NTA was planning marches to hand a memorandum of grievances to the transport ministry, its entities, and the SA Local Government Association.

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge