LISTEN | State failed to hold taxi industry accountable to stop violence: expert

Blockaded roads, vehicles stoned and burnt, and threats. This is what Cape Town residents have been subjected to in the past few days during the taxi strike.

This type of violence has become a norm in protests, particularly when the taxi industry is unhappy and pulls its vehicles off the road. And when other parties don't follow suit they face the music.

Violence prevention expert Gareth Newham said very few people involved in violence in the taxi industry are arrested and prosecuted.

Listen to Newham's analysis:

In the Western Cape, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) embarked on a strike last Thursday over Cape Town’s bylaw which allows city officials to impound vehicles instead of fining drivers when they have disregarded road rules such as not indicating or overloading.

Violence has since erupted in the province, with stones thrown at vehicles on roads and vehicles burnt. Santaco distanced itself from the violence and called on law enforcement agencies to find the perpetrators.

Protesting with valid reasons or not, it has become a pattern that strikes involving taxi drivers tend to turn to violence.

Newham, who is the head of the justice and violence programme at the Institute for security Studies, analysed why this happens and what could be done about it.

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