Gauteng premier David Makhura has dropped a bombshell about the volatile taxi industry, saying some of the problems in the industry were caused by government officials.

He said some civil servants owned taxis and meddled in the issuing of operating licences and the approval of routes to benefit themselves.

"There are government officials who are involved in the running of taxis and traffic officials who own taxis.

"There is corruption in the allocation of routes and issuing of operating licences, forcing people to kill each other as routes are saturated," Makhura said.

He was speaking at the Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg yesterday at a taxi indaba to prepare for the summit where issues affecting the taxi industry would be discussed.

Taxi operators and traffic law enforcers have been at loggerheads over issues that include impounding of taxis and slow issuing of operational licences, which renders their operations illegal.

The industry is also demanding lanes for taxis similar to those of the Bus Rapid Transport system.

Makhura announced that taxi operators would be included in future developments such as the Gautrain expansion plans.

The ambitious plans would ensure that taxi operators have a stake when the high-speed train is extended to Soweto, Mamelodi in Pretoria and to the East Rand.

Meanwhile, the two national taxi representative bodies - the SA National Taxi Council and the National Taxi Alliance - have differences over the planned march against the government.

The NTA said it had suspended the strike, while Santaco said it would march to the Gauteng government offices on Monday.

xabav@sowetan.co.za