Government has put taxi owners on the road to financial peril

However, a decade after the Transport Department began impounding old minibus taxis, the devil of the taxi recapitalisation has been in the detail.

The public protector is investigating how more than 2000 panel vans made their way onto our roads, disguised as Quantum Sesfikile minibuses. Unscrupulous companies created quick profits off converting the goods-carrying vans into people-carrying Quantums, with none of the required safety measures. As a result of last week's taxi strike in Johannesburg, there are also questions about how much the recapitalisation project has cost the taxi industry.

The R50,000 scrapping allowance pales in comparison with the almost R1-million some taxi owners say they are paying for a new Quantum, including insurance, interest and other fees.

By failing to pay attention to the detail, the government has placed members of a mostly black-owned industry on the road to untold financial peril. Apart from condemning the violence that accompanied last week's strike, the department's response to the problems faced by the industry - and by extension thousands of South African commuters - has been wholly inadequate.

The government should stop playing passenger when problems arise as a result of a process it has driven.