Actions by the ANC, not apartheid spatial planning, are the root cause of the taxi mess
07 September 2023 - 04:00
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A city on edge: A violent strike against Cape Town’s bylaws left commuters stranded earlier this month. Picture: Reuters/Esa Alexander
The ANC, not apartheid spatial planning, is to blame for the taxi mess
Talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous with the Cape Town taxi mayhem. First, Chris Roper’s excellent summary, “A Two-Way Street” (Opinion, August 10-16), which pointed the blame quite rightly at the greedy taxi owners, now Matthew Hirsch’s “After the Taxi Storm” (Features, August 24-30), which has the nerve to blame the City of Cape Town based on some wayward comments from a couple of “experts”.
One of these “experts” — an “independent crisis consultant” — effectively called city officials “six-year-olds” for the way they’d handled the negotiations. I certainly wouldn’t want him consulting for me with language like that.
The other “expert” didn’t know that “apartheid spatial planning” had very little to do with the taxi mayhem: Khayelitsha, the main base of the taxi passengers so badly affected by the irresponsible strike action, was only created in 1983 and had about 30,000 inhabitants (mainly Xhosa migrants from the Eastern Cape) by 1985. In 1994 the ANC apparently bused in more people from the Eastern Cape to win the vote — and then completely messed up its management of the city. By 2011 the number had risen to about 400,000. Now, according to Sikhula Sonke, it’s 2.4-million.
Yes, apartheid was really stupid, but stop blaming it for this latest nonsense — that’s all for the ANC’s account. And its refusal to hand over control of the Metrorail lines to the competent city has also aggravated the matter. That would allow it to finish the planned fully integrated transport system we are crying out for.
Dave Stephens Gordon’s Bay
The FM welcomes concise letters from readers. They can be sent tofmmail@fm.co.za
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: ANC actions caused taxi chaos
Actions by the ANC, not apartheid spatial planning, are the root cause of the taxi mess
The ANC, not apartheid spatial planning, is to blame for the taxi mess
Talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous with the Cape Town taxi mayhem. First, Chris Roper’s excellent summary, “A Two-Way Street” (Opinion, August 10-16), which pointed the blame quite rightly at the greedy taxi owners, now Matthew Hirsch’s “After the Taxi Storm” (Features, August 24-30), which has the nerve to blame the City of Cape Town based on some wayward comments from a couple of “experts”.
One of these “experts” — an “independent crisis consultant” — effectively called city officials “six-year-olds” for the way they’d handled the negotiations. I certainly wouldn’t want him consulting for me with language like that.
The other “expert” didn’t know that “apartheid spatial planning” had very little to do with the taxi mayhem: Khayelitsha, the main base of the taxi passengers so badly affected by the irresponsible strike action, was only created in 1983 and had about 30,000 inhabitants (mainly Xhosa migrants from the Eastern Cape) by 1985. In 1994 the ANC apparently bused in more people from the Eastern Cape to win the vote — and then completely messed up its management of the city. By 2011 the number had risen to about 400,000. Now, according to Sikhula Sonke, it’s 2.4-million.
Yes, apartheid was really stupid, but stop blaming it for this latest nonsense — that’s all for the ANC’s account. And its refusal to hand over control of the Metrorail lines to the competent city has also aggravated the matter. That would allow it to finish the planned fully integrated transport system we are crying out for.
Dave Stephens
Gordon’s Bay
The FM welcomes concise letters from readers. They can be sent to fmmail@fm.co.za
CHRIS ROPER: Taxi strike a two-way street
After the taxi strike storm: getting to grips with the causes
Taxi strike cost Western Cape R5bn, MEC tells parliament
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