The Western Cape minibus taxi industry has launched a peace ambassador programme after a spate of shootings that claimed the lives of several operators in the industry.
The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) unveiled the initiative at the Bellville taxi rank on Monday. It follows the murders of Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) deputy chairperson Mnikeli Mgope, who was shot while seated in his car at the Nyanga taxi rank, and former Cata spokesperson Andile Seyamo, shot dead at his Brown’s Farm home days later.
The killings came amid a flare-up in tensions between Cata and the Cape Organisation for a Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) over control of the Somerset West–Khayelitsha route.
“The recent spate of violence in the taxi industry has claimed lives, disrupted communities and shaken public confidence in the safety of public transport,” said Santaco.
The programme was “one of several initiatives flowing from the Western Cape taxi peace summit, aimed at ensuring the industry moves from dialogue to action”.
Santaco appointed 16 peace ambassadors in “the eight taxi regions of the province”.
“These ambassadors will act as community-based champions of non-violence, tasked with mediating tensions early, promoting accountability and serving as trusted points of contact for commuters and operators.”
The organisation also introduced the If You Hear Something, Say Something campaign, which “empowers commuters, drivers and operators to report threats or intimidation before they escalate into violence”.
Santaco Western Cape chairperson Mandla Hermanus said he hoped the initiative would help transform the industry.
“This has been an idea we’ve had for some time. In August, we held a peace summit, and one of the undertakings was that we keep talking about violence in the industry, yet people continue to die and commuters are caught in the crossfire.
“We asked ourselves what action we could take to show we are serious about promoting peace and non-violence in the industry. So this has been a long time coming.”
Hermanus said the peace ambassador initiative builds on a previous structure, known as 15-15, which collapsed because it was informal.
“That was only between Cata and Codeta. They formed a peace committee, and whenever there were challenges, that committee would meet and address them before they degenerated into violence,” he said.
“That concept worked. For about three to four years, there was not a single incident related to taxi violence, as the team managed issues effectively. The associations knew where to report problems. So this is a revival of that idea. It collapsed because it was an informal structure, but it worked. We’ve now expanded it beyond Cata and Codeta to cover the rest of the province.”
Hermanus said the Somerset West–Khayelitsha route dispute between Cata and Codeta had spread to other regions.
“It ended up affecting the Northern region and the Boland,” he said. “So we decided to have a team from each region that can say, ‘associations in my region are not seeing eye to eye,’ so that we can intervene.”
He said Seyamo and Mgope were killed in the same week and the “circumstances surrounding their deaths are still under investigation”.
“We were reluctant to link those killings to the recent violence because certain details still need to be clarified. Sometimes incidents appear taxi-related because they involve operators, but once you have people on the ground, you can understand the real context.”
Ivan Waldeck, one of the peace ambassadors, hailed the initiative as a step in the right direction.
“It is important that we unite against violence and protect our fathers and children who are dying in the industry and across the Western Cape due to gang violence.
“We have decided as Santaco to take this step and join hands with everyone to bring peace to the industry and our communities. I am challenging all good leaders in the industry across the province to join hands and make a difference,” he said.
TimesLIVE
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