It is painful to see our government so determined to destroy the only black-owned industry, the taxi business. This industry is consistently harassed by the law enforcers through unacceptable penalties involving huge sums of money.

It is painful to see our government so determined to destroy the only black-owned industry, the taxi business. This industry is consistently harassed by the law enforcers through unacceptable penalties involving huge sums of money.

Taxis transport more than 60 percent of people in the urban areas. In the rural areas the service is used by 80 percent of the population.

People use this mode of transport because it is flexible and more affordable compared with other subsidised transport modes. The view that they are dangerous is not true because it is not empirical.

I am of the view that the government's taxi recapitalisation process is a ploy to take away the taxi industry from African people in favour of big corporations. They want to take over the industry because they are unable to compete in the transport industry.

The new taxi plan will deliver nothing but increased poverty, especially in the rural areas. Most taxi owners live in the rural areas.

I was recently saddened by the amount of brutality police used against protesting taxi drivers in Cape Town.

It is the duty of SAPS to maintain law and order, and to protect citizens.

But the police must be reminded that people also have the constitutional right to engage in protest marches without fear of harassment.

Sbusiso Xaba, President, Pan Africanist Youth Congress of Azania, Johannesburg