Four Bay taxi drivers arrested for overloading school pupils

Four Nelson Mandela Bay taxi drivers have been arrested by metro police this week alone for overloading.

Two of the drivers did not have licences, police said.

The arrests come as part of a clampdown operation on drivers who mostly transport school pupils. 

Metro police chief Yolanda Faro said a 31-year-old taxi driver from Kwadwesi was arrested on Thursday at the Govan Mbeki and Albany Road intersection, when he was caught transporting 34 school pupils in a 16-seater Toyota Quantum. 

This comes after another arrest on Monday, when a 26-year-old driver was arrested for ferrying 48 passengers, almost all school pupils, in a minibus. 

Police stopped the vehicle in Chase Drive, between Stanford Road and Ditchling Road.

"On inspection of the vehicle, their suspicion was confirmed that the vehicle was indeed overloaded with school kids sitting literally on top of each other,” Faro said.

She said the driver was then escorted to the Sidwell traffic department  offices, where the vehicle was weighed "for overload" and the passengers counted.

On Tuesday, another taxi was pulled over at the corner of Dyke and Ditchling Road in Algoa Park.

The 25-year-old driver, who did not have a driver's licence, was arrested for transporting 36 school pupils. 

On Wednesday, a 53-year-old taxi driver, who also did not have a driver’s licence, was arrested in Hayota Drive, Korsten.

Twenty-nine people were in the taxi including 15 school pupils between the ages of 15 and 18.

Faro warned taxi operators and owners to ensure that their drivers were fully compliant with the law and adhered to traffic regulations.

All the minibuses were handed back over to the owners after the drivers were detained.