Call for greater safety for women travelling in taxis

Thousands of women have called for better safety in taxis and made their inputs to a draft National SafeTaxis Charter to improve public transport for females.

The National SafeTaxis Charter consultation process was started after a spate of rapes and robberies of women in taxis reported in Gauteng between March and April.

“Through this process we were able to gather submissions for the National SafeTaxis Charter for Women. We had over 2‚000 people who participated with over 100 ideas generated‚” said advocacy manager Matokgo Makutoane during the draft charter presentation at the Soul City Institute for Social Justice media briefing in Johannesburg‚ on Wednesday.

Soul City said the process included public dialogues‚ stakeholder engagements and submissions through Amandlamobi.

“We are now taking these contributions back to our partners so that we can submit the finalised charter to the taxi industry and government departments. We have already seen that the Department of Transport is able to take action to protect commuters as they have done with the recent amendment to the National Land Transport Act‚ 2009 which regulates colour coding and branding for minibuses‚” said Makutoane.

He said the charter “showed that women wanted the police and criminal justice system to hold perpetrators to account and take women’s cases seriously”.

Amandla.mobi‚ the Soweto Women’s Forum‚ ActionAid‚ 1 in 9 Campaign‚ National Taxi Alliance‚ Sonke Gender Justice‚ Gauteng department of community safety‚ the SA National Taxi Council and the Soweto Women’s Forum supported the process with community dialogues‚ self-defence classes and night vigils.

“We became involved in the campaign to highlight the challenges women face daily while commuting in public transport and to lobby for the regulation of the taxi industry by the Department of Transport‚” said Mmakatlego Wamphutlane from the forum. “As the National Taxi Alliance‚ we support the charter and we want to ensure that women are safe at all times. The alliance will ensure all the charter recommendations are adopted by the taxi industry at large‚” said National Taxi Alliance spokesperson‚ Theo Malele.

The safer we make public transport for women‚ the safer for all users‚ said Amandla.mobi executive director Koketso Moeti.

“We want to ensure proper collaborations with civil society‚ other stakeholders and support for the National Safe Taxis charter which we will advocate that it is adopted by taxi associations and government‚” said Makutoane.

- SowetanLIVE