The uncertainty the taxi industry now reaps is the fruit of the chaos it has deliberately sown for years.

The uncertainty the taxi industry now reaps is the fruit of the chaos it has deliberately sown for years.

Now the taximen expect to hold society at ransom with violence after years of guerrilla warfare to keep the industry free of government control.

But while they carried on battling the authorities a new democracy dawned in South Africa.

We are now a nation of laws that operates in the interests of all its people. That means like all other citizens they are obliged to comply with traffic regulations and to pay taxes so we can fund public services.

It also means that once the government crafted a national transport policy to service all its citizens they too became subject to its dictates.

The bus rapid transit systems being devised for our major metropolises have involved representatives of the taxi industry since planning first started.

So it is disingenuous of drivers and operators now to claim they don't know what is going on.

It is precisely because they do and are trying everything they can to maintain their Wild West regime that they caused such mayhem on the streets of our main cities.

Enough is enough. It's time for the government to assert its authority and stamp out the taximen's banditry.