Uber taxis are cool‚ safe‚ cheap‚ efficient and make Western Cape Premier Helen Zille sleep better at night.

“Young people love it‚ and many parents (including me) sleep better at night knowing that their kids will ‘Uber home’ rather than take risks after a night out‚” Zille wrote on her new government newsletter‚ Inside Government‚ on Monday.

This is after her government came under attack from the technology taxi service and its users last week.

Uber spokesman Samantha Allenberg accused Western Cape provincial traffic officers of xenophobic discrimination against its drivers and criticised Zille government for dragging its feet in approving operating licenses.

Traffic officials have impounded over 200 Uber taxis this year alone‚ apparently for not having operating licenses. This is because e-hailing is not provided for in current laws by the national‚ provincial or local governments.

An online petition‚ titled Cape Town Needs Uber‚ by 11am on Monday had almost 20000 signatures. But‚ despite the praise of the service‚ Zille explained that her government was hamstrung by the the law.

“It (the government) can only do what the law specifically allows it to do‚ not what people (or the Premier) think it should do‚” she wrote.

Zille said Uber’s e-hailing service did not fall under any of the categories of the National Land Transport Act.

“The solution currently on the table is to license Uber taxis in terms of the clauses covering metered taxis‚ while providing certain exemptions‚” wrote Zille.

But she said her government was looking “for a way forward” and on Thursday this week a meeting of the Provincial Regulating Entity will consider all the Uber applications supported by the City of Cape Town.

The city had also started work on a by-law which will cater for the Uber service.

Uber‚ which uses a smartphone application for the users to request a ride and pay online‚ has seen resistance even from their peers in the traditional metered taxi industry.