The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has reached out to taxi operators who have been operating illegally and has strengthened the department’s relationship with the minibus taxi industry. This follows the Ntirhisano Taxi Outreach Programme hosted by the Department of Roads and Transport hosted across five regions in Gauteng last month where issues facing the industry were discussed."There was a fantastic response to the regional visits hosted by the provincial and municipal governments as thousands of taxi operators came in to resolve matters relating to their operating licences‚” said MEC Ismail Vadi.He was speaking at a media briefing on the outcomes of the Minibus Taxi Operating Licensing Outreach Programme in Johannesburg on Monday."These face-to-face interactions with taxi operators have built greater trust between them and government. Many thought it was an election ploy but they were very surprised by the amount of work government officials have put into the process‚" he added.A five-member committee - made up of Gauteng MECs - was appointed by Gauteng Premier David Makhura during the Provincial Taxi Indaba-Ntirhisano in June at Standard Bank Arena‚ to clean up all issues affecting the taxi industry.These committee comprises Vadi himself‚ community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane‚ economic development MEC Lebogang Maile‚ human settlements‚ local government and traditional affairs MEC Paul Mashatile and social development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza.According to Vadi‚ the department has tried to cut down the backlog of taxi permits which have caused of a lot of problems in the industry.He said 4‚209 taxi operators who had failed to get permits from the department came forward with documentation dating from as far back as 2011."I think there is a problem and we must accept and we must recognise that there was a problem in the past but the important thing is that this has been a novel exercise to go out and reach out to them. We have seen such positive values out of this exercise that we now want to make this an annual thing‚" said Vadi.Vadi‚ through the Ntirhisano taxi programme‚ said 199 operating licences were issued during the regional visits‚ 224 were referred for adjudication to the Provincial Regulatory Entity‚ and 979 were currently being processed by the administration.A total of 1‚248 operating licence applications had been referred to the municipalities for “concurrency”.However‚ 122 applications were rejected due to false documentation or fake permits and a further 96 applications could not be processed due to incomplete documentation provided by applicants. The regional visits were to the Ekurhuleni‚ Sedibeng‚ Tshwane‚ Joburg and the West Rand regions.Vadi announced that the outreach visits to metropolitan municipalities would continue later this month so that "officials can meet with a further 909 taxi operators"‚ whose matters could not be fully attended to thus far.Vadi further confirmed that the Minibus Taxi Working Group established at the conclusion of the Taxi Summit on July 29 had met already to begin processing the draft resolutions. The taxi summit adopted a declaration that was signed by Makhura and the provincial chairpersons of the Gauteng National Taxi Alliance (GNTA)‚ Piet Mahlangu and Santaco's (Gauteng) Johannes Mkhonza respectively...