Authorities fear the eruption of a taxi war in Brackenfell following the application for a new taxi route into this suburb.
The proposed new route will directly connect the eastern areas of Khayelitsha and Nyanga with the Cape Gate region, sidestepping the Bellville connection – a move that will lead to chaos, according to roleplayers.
The Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA) received and application from a taxi association that operates in Khayelitsha and Nyanga earlier this month, which has already resulted in taxis illegally ranking on the Protea Heights side of the Brackenfell train station, while the application is pending.
According to local councillors the proposed route, coming from Khayelithsa and Mfuleni via Blue Downs and Kuils River down Bottelary Road, into Cecil Morgan and down to Brackenfell train station, is one that will cause severe friction between Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta), two taxi factions in the City.
On Wednesday, Siseko Mbandezi, a councillor at Subcouncil 2, vehemently opposed this route, saying it is a “disaster waiting to happen”.
According to him, Cata has been ranking on the other side of the station in Brackenfell for several years and serves the route coming from Cape Gate to Bellville. By giving another faction legal ranking rights just on the other side of the railway bridge to serve another route will undoubtedly lead to unprecedented taxi violence, he says.
“It will endanger the lives of not only the taxi drivers, but also that of every person making use of the station, be it train commuters, school children crossing the railway bridge in the morning and afternoons, or the residents in the adjacent residential Protea Heights area,” he said.
Mbandezi wanted to know why the TDA is even considering such a route without having consulted the local councillors, who have an intimate knowledge of the area and its problems.
“Placing this particular taxi rank in a residential area makes no sense whatsoever – it will lead to death,” he said.
Both ANC councillors in the subcouncil, Simpiwe Nonkeyizana and Lyuanda Mbele, supported Mbandezi in his objection, saying that this move will create problems.
“We have to resolve this as soon as possible, before chaos erupts,” said Nonkeyzana, who has an intimate knowledge of taxi wars in the region.
Likewise, Mbele said considering this application is a “war in the making”, similar to many previous clashes in the same area.
He urged the TDA “to not take this lightly”.
“It cannot work. We understand that a route from Khayelitsha directly to the Cape Gate region might be necessary, but not at the cost of countless lives,” Mbele said.
At the same meeting ward councillor for Protea Heights, Marian Niewoudt, submitted an urgent motion that this route not be established before proper consultation has taken place and that law enforcement action at the station be included in monthly reports.
