But there would be more blood spilled. Just two days after the Brook Street shooting, a fully laden taxi from Port Shepstone was sprayed with bullets on the M4 freeway, south of Durban. The driver was injured and a passenger grazed by a bullet.
At the time, Mfundo Gcaba, one of the much-feared Gcaba brothers, was accused of spearheading a hostile takeover of routes from other associations, using the Sonke Long Distance Taxi Association. The Gcaba brothers, who have blood ties with former president Jacob Zuma through their mother, own a taxi empire headed by Mandla Gcaba and his brothers Roma, Thembinkosi and Mfundo.
They are arguably the most feared family in the KwaZulu-Natal taxi industry and have a reputation countrywide as untouchable dons of the multibillion-rand industry.
However, despite its controversial involvement in the lucrative South Coast route, Sonke now wants to run it – and this time they seem to want to do it legally. They also want to operate several others elsewhere in the province.