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Gauteng Taxi Council (Gataco) spokesman Ralph Jones said that taxi commuters travelling long distances to and from the city must prepare for price hikes of up to R20 a single trip.

Jones said local operations in and around Gauteng would also be affected.

"It has become difficult to do business with the petrol price always on the rise. We can no longer afford to pay our vehicle instalments and we do not get a subsidy from the government. We have become a charity organisation.

"We are still holding meetings to discuss the price increases, but the estimation is that local operations could be increased by R1 or R2 - in some areas by R5. But those travelling long distances could pay R10 or R20 more."

Commuters to be affected in local operations are those from the south of Johannesburg, Midrand, Randburg, Clearwater and the East Rand.

Jones said the new price list would be available on the 15th of this month.

"We have given taxi associations a framework to work on considering distances," Jones said.

A local taxi trip from Zola in Soweto to Johannesburg inner city costs R9,50. With the proposed new price structure, this would be R10.50.

A taxi trip from Johannesburg to Polokwane is R170 and would go up R10.

The petrol price increased by 28c to R12,22 a litre last Wednesday.

The envisaged taxi price hikes follow increases in train fares in April which went up a national average of 27%.

Also expected to go up on July 1 are bus operators' prices.

Putco and Johannesburg Metrobus companies said they had not finalised the increase percentages, but confirmed that they increased their prices every July.

South African Commuter Organisation president Stephen Sangweni said it had had meetings with taxi organisations to discuss the matter.

"They explained to us how they are planning to increase the fares and it is difficult to convince them not to do so because taxis are not subsidised.

"But bus operators have not spoken to us and we will not allow them to increase prices before we meet," he said.

Comments

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Mon May 20 06:00:03 SAST 2013 ::

May 7, 2012

candilious

Ja nee and what is Goverment doing about this this petrol hiking in a week time. Fok we are dooooooomed stroes
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May 7, 2012

SteveBiko

and when the petrol price go down, the taxi fare remain the same, and when it goes up, the taxi fare also go up...welcom to spitz country.
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May 7, 2012

missAYA

You know its bad when the guys driving those big expensive German cars are filling up with R50 *TRUE STORY*

This petrol situation is just getting out of hand. guess Ill be holding onto my little ride for longer than I expected! :-)

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May 7, 2012

Mafu'theNkukhu

Our pockets will have holes.
Safa yilophethiloli.
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May 7, 2012

CheeseBoy

missAYA
You know its bad when the guys driving those big expensive German cars are filling up with R50 *TRUE STORY*

i see it all the time. you see a range rover pulling off a pump and find that the guy had poured R70.00
one guy confessed that he is desperately selling his Range sport coz it was too much for him. times are tuff.

the price increse in fuel is world wide. our govt can help us be removing some of those riddiculous taxes, since they want to toll us any way. but the greedy fools will never do that. they wanna steal from the poor as much as possible.
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May 7, 2012

Lehido

we are f@ked
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May 7, 2012

FUNKFIED

"It has become difficult to do business with the petrol price always on the rise. We can no longer afford to pay our vehicle instalments and we do not get a subsidy from the government. We have become a charity organisation"

Is it me or there is everything wrong in this statement. First taxis do not pay any formal tax, 2nd you are excluded from paying tolls 3rd everyone knows you own the roads and taxi drivers apply their own rules on the road what subsidy do you want. Charity and taxi organisation are two opposite words.
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May 7, 2012

Mosquer

Damn ga re a le bona
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May 7, 2012

RobinH

Prices on the Cape Peninsula went up marginally on the 1st of this month.
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May 7, 2012

Kuch

Jeez..it's amazing how everuthing else is going up...price wise...except for one thing.....My salary
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