Focus on conflict, competition and pricing at public transport hearings
Battles over routes in the taxi industry and hostility between meter taxi drivers and cab-hailing services – some of which have ended in killings – are but some of the major hurdles facing the volatile public transport industry.
The problems, along with possible price regulation amid soaring petrol prices, are some of the issues the Competition Commission’s nationwide public transport market inquiry seeks to address.
The Bay will on Monday be the next stop for the hearings, which are expected to take place at the Port Elizabeth City Hall over two days.
Nelson Mandela Bay is no stranger to deadly conflicts in the taxi industry, with at least three taxi owners shot dead between May and June.
Taxi boss Vuyisile Mngcokoca, 64, was gunned down in the driveway of his Motherwell home in front of his wife, mother-in-law and children on June 4, while Lulamile Mafani, 57, was killed in his Motherwell home about a week later.
In May, a 44-year-old taxi driver from Walmer was shot dead at the Port Elizabeth Taxi Rank in Russell Road.
Police spokesperson Andre Beetge said on Wednesday no one had been arrested in connection with the killings.
Beetge said Mafani’s murder was not linked to taxi wars.
The deaths of several Uber and Taxify drivers around the country have also been linked to an alleged rift between the drivers of the cab-hailing services and meter taxi drivers.
Competition Commission spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said the public hearings were not exclusively focusing on the taxi industry, but the inquiry was “a general investigation into the state, nature and form of competition in the market”.
The commission said its focus will be on all land-based forms of public transport, including the bus industry, minibus taxis, metered taxis, app-based taxi services, Metrorail and the Gautrain.
Ngwema urged all market participants, the public and any other interested groups to have their say during the public hearings.
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