Chilling voice notes threatened to burn and kill hours before buses, vehicles were torched in Cape Town

The chaos and destruction of property coinciding with the taxi strike in Cape Town on Monday was preceded by chilling voice notes threatening murder if taxi bosses didn’t get their way.

Since Sunday afternoon, voice notes have been circulating in which unknown people threatened communities, schools and businesses — stay home or face a bloodbath. In one, a man threatened to burn teachers and babies. Another asked taxi drivers to disrupt flights at Cape Town International Airport by blocking the N2.

The voice notes are unverified — and authorities have cautioned about the sharing of voice notes that cause panic — some of the threats, in this case, were carried out. The City of Cape Town said on Monday that 27 people had been arrested in connection with a taxi blockade which caused traffic disruptions on the N2.

Numerous roads were shut down across the city, and police confirmed incidents of looting at shopping malls in Gugulethu, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Mfuleni and Kraaifontein. Protesters “violently entered shops and fled with household appliances, clothing and liquor”, said police. “In Gugulethu five suspects were arrested for the possession of suspected stolen property, and are being detained ... Cases of public violence are under police investigation and more arrests could be affected as our investigation unfolds.” 

Four Golden Arrow buses were torched, four private vehicles were destroyed by fire, two trucks were torched at a city depot on Govan Mbeki Road and a vehicle belonging to the city was hijacked in Samora Machel. 

Education MEC David Maynier’s spokesperson, Kerry Mauchline, said the taxi strike had prevented “456,020 learners and 17,449 staff from getting to school” on Monday.

“This is a significant increase from the 287,000 learners and 9,500 staff members who were absent on Friday and is a devastating loss of teaching and learning time that our children simply cannot afford,” said Mauchline.

She said 27 schools had to close on Monday, and several others let pupils leave early. 

At least 44 people were arrested on Monday, according to the City of Cape Town. The Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS) appealed for donations as the strike had led to the closure of donation clinics.

As the strike continues, causing delays at the airport due to staff shortages — and being flagged as a security threat by the UK government in a travel advisory — more people have been injured in sporadic rock throwing incidents.

Lindsey Kann emerged as one of the first people to be hurt after the strike got under way on Thursday.

The 79-year-old has no recollection of the incident. She has a fractured skull, cheekbone and broken jaw from a rock thrown through her car window while travelling home to Somerset West.

Her daughter Jennifer, got a call from the Gugulethu Community Health Centre to advise her that her mother was found by police in Nyanga, passed out and severely injured in her car. She was taken to the day clinic.

“At the time I was grateful for their care and attention, but later that night when I collected my mother I was even more heartened by the care that I received as I saw how stretched the medical professionals were,” said Jennifer.

One of the chilling voice notes which started circulating at about 6pm on Sunday was aimed at the airport. In it a male outlines plans to disrupt the first flight out of Cape Town on Monday. He calls on taxis from far and wide to block the N2.

“Here is an urgent announcement regarding tomorrow’s plan: tomorrow morning at 3am, Langa and Gugulethu vehicles are joining the N2 towards the airport,” he says.

“Nyanga vehicles will leave Nyanga travelling towards the airport. Khayelitsha vehicles and Macassar and Somerset West will move towards the airport. Bellville [vehicles], Durbanville, Malmesbury and Atlantis will move towards Bellville. At 3am, all these vehicles will leave their ranks and make a huge procession towards the airport. Paarl [vehicles], Stellenbosch will move towards the airport.”

“We are aiming for 4am at the airport — in time for the first flight.”

A second voice note warned: “Tell your mothers that we will beat them up and burn them and shoot them. Buses, farm vehicles, cars from Jet stores, we don’t want them [including] small cars, scholar transport.

“Kids should not go to school tomorrow. We will burn everything, including teachers and schools. Do you understand me? [We will do this] until the government responds.”

The third threatened killings.

We will even burn babies. We will start tomorrow, Monday. It is Sunday today. The time is 8.24pm, you hear me? You will see.

—  A man says in one of the voice notes

“Things are bad. We have just emerged from a meeting. It won’t be pretty; you’ve also seen the cars being burnt. It will get worse because we are not getting a response.

“From Monday, this might go on until Friday, people will be killed. We are not joking, guys. We want to ensure that we get answers from the government. We are also starving. We can starve for many days. We want to work. The government doesn’t want to respond to us, they are messing with us. What must we do? We will kill everything now.”

The man says taxi owners are “fed up”.

“We also have kids and families that we want to feed. I am advising that if you are working, things are getting worse. We don’t want to see buses. We will be heavily armed. We move police officers out of the way ...

“We have resolved that if we don’t get a response, we will make Cape Town unbearable ... if you want to be safe stay at home and don’t move.”

The SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) in the Western Cape on Monday distanced itself from violence and condemned the destruction of property. 

“It is with great sorrow and regret that we take notice of the violence and destruction of property and the loss of life that occurred over the last few days and this morning,” Santaco said in a statement.

“We are especially aggrieved by the perception of the public that we are lawless. The perception is being fuelled by protesters and not members of our organisation. 

“We do understand that members are upset by the unlawful actions of certain law enforcement officers that damaged taxis and assaulted some of our members’ drivers during the course of last week, which in no small part precipitated the stayaway action. Nonetheless, be very clear, any violent protests are not sanctioned by this organisation.”

Work absenteeism of up to 80%, reputational damage and low customer turnout were widespread in areas, said the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

And one sector, the Retail Motor Industry Sector, said the strike impact was similar to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The chamber said it was still too soon to quantify the economic impact, though some of its member organisations are compiling statistics.

Some of the sector impacts were: 50% workforce absenteeism in the retail motor industry sector, which implemented a “no work, no pay” policy; 80% workforce absenteeism in the fish industry resulting in underused production lines; 60% absenteeism in some large companies in the furniture manufacturing sector.

Western Cape premier Alan Winde chaired a special provincial cabinet meeting on Monday “to report back on the various engagements and interventions that have been under way since the beginning of the minibus taxi strike in the Western Cape”.

Winde said, “despite urgent negotiations since last Thursday, there is unfortunately still no resolution”.

“I am angry that as a result of the strike, residents have been unable to get home to their families or to work, school, shops, clinics and other critical sites. Many government services, including health and social development, are having to close facilities and are unable to provide desperately needed services to our communities. Our schooling system is affected. This is not acceptable,” Winde said.

“We welcome Santaco’s condemnation of the levels of violence associated with the strike. However, we remain deeply concerned by the violence, loss of life and destruction of property that has been associated with the strike. Santaco’s leadership must ensure that the violence associated with the strike ends immediately.”

Winde said his government “is pursuing legal action, along with the City of Cape Town, to interdict the violence”.

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the city would not “will not negotiate with a [literal] gun to our heads” given “ongoing acts of violence and intimidation perpetrated by taxi associations in our city”.

“There can be no further discussions with local Santaco leadership until their violence stops. Simple. We call on Santaco to stop the violence immediately,” he said.

“We cannot negotiate which portions of the law will apply to some people and not to others. This is not the way we will ever build a successful society in South Africa. The law applies equally to everyone. We will apply the law without fear or favour.

“We are protecting residents and commuters by opening roads, running buses with escorts, and arresting those perpetrators of violence. Our priority is protecting residents from violent taxi thugs.”

Hill-Lewis said most road closures and blockages had “been cleared very quickly, and traffic is free-flowing for the most part”.

“If Santaco does not choose to end their strike, then we will need to be prepared to stay the course. We are prepared to do so,” he said.