Bheki Cele announces team to tackle spike in KZN taxi killings

Between January and July, taxi violence claimed 24 lives in the Ugu district of KwaZulu-Natal, more than triple the number for the same period last year.

This was revealed by police minister Bheki Cele, who met taxi bosses amid heavy armed watch in Ugu on the province’s south coast on Thursday.

Cele said the deaths were a far cry from last year's five when he met taxi owners representing more than 18 associations at Ugu sports and leisure grounds. There they resolved to put together a team to stem the tide of killings motivated by profitable routes.

“If there is no special intervention we will reach crisis proportions,” said the police minister.

“We need to put together a competent team from different arms of government. Where there is money that is unaccounted for, the best-placed people to deal with that is Sars,” said Cele.

Other stakeholders would include the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and transport department, he added. The ministry planned to use this intervention as a pilot project in Ugu, which was a hotbed of killings.

Cele said the time had come for the industry to rid itself of its violent reputation.

“You have got this power that you are misusing and abusing,” he said.

Each of the associations present was able to generate more than R14m in profit, the minister added.

“These are the profits you should be using for the wellbeing of the families. Instead you use it to ... send people to the graves. You must put a stop to criminality."

Cele said using security personnel to safeguard the industry was a waste of money which could be better spent elsewhere, such as investing in air travel.

“The aviation industry is a business opportunity you should be exploring."

The police minister said he was unfazed by threats to his life made during his attempts to control the fight for the lucrative industry, adding that he has upset that the number of people arrested for killing taxi bosses was less than those who had died.

“These numbers should be equal."

The South African National Taxi Council's (Santaco) KZN chairperson Boy Zondi applauded the intervention.

“The industry was also concerned by the monies that had been floating around in the industry, which has prompted the provincial leadership to meet the [KZN] premier, Sihle Zikalala, and the transport MEC. We have not just sat back and done nothing,” said Zondi.

He said they explored measures to mitigate the illicit flow of money through an electronic money-monitoring system in the hopes this would minimise the risk of taxi owners collecting money in buckets at taxi ranks.

Zondi also welcomed Cele’s plan for a multidisciplinary team to tackle the spike in taxi violence and killings.

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