AFTER five years of waiting, the Mamelodi Amalgamated Taxi Association finally had its fraud case against taxis with illegal operating licences opened.

Last week Sowetan wrote about the frustrations Mata had gone through trying to get the authorities to do something about the illegal taxi operating licences it had found in its association and in others.

The association feared an outbreak of violence if the the illegal licence operators were not stopped.

Mata had tried to open a case at the Mamelodi police station, but police refused to process it, saying it was the department of roads and transport who needed to do so.

The taxi operators also produced their evidence to the Gauteng department of roads and transport, which allegedly took documents but did not do anything about the situation.

Yesterday Mata members were ecstatic about having opened the case.

"I am happy that after all these years we finally opened a case. When I arrived at the police station yesterday (Monday) it was like they were already expecting me and we opened the case easily. Your intervention was really positive," said a Mata member, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.

Police spokesman Warrant Officer Michael Mbewe confirmed the case had been opened. "We can confirm that the case of fraud was opened at Mamelodi West police station and the investigations are under way." - penwelld@sowetan.co.za