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Schoolkids forced to use taxi with standing room only

A Patensie taxi driver who was transporting 50 schoolchildren inside a 15-seater minibus and arrested for overloading and speeding is expected to appear in court on Thursday.

The 31-year-old driver‚ who police are not naming until he appears in court‚ was arrested on Wednesday after Patensie detective commander Lieutenant Loaan Steenkamp spotted the Toyota Quantum taxi speeding.

Three Grade 6 Chigwell Primary pupils‚ who use the taxi daily‚ said the taxi was overloaded every day.

“We don’t sit in the taxi‚ we all stand up‚” one child said.

“There is no place to sit. The only way we can all fit in is if we stand.

“When the driver picks us up at Kwaggaskloof‚ there are about 15 of us and he makes a stop at another farm along the way to school where 15 other kids get in.”

One of the pupils residing in the Ramaphosa informal settlement said the taxi belonged to a man known as “Oom Ken”.

When the alleged taxi owner returned to his Ramaphosa residence later‚ he drove right past his house on seeing a Herald vehicle parked in his driveway.

Another pupil said: “He owns three taxis which are always overloaded.

“I ride with him to school‚ but we can’t sit down in the taxi. There isn’t any place.

“There is nobody else in this area with a taxi so we have to use his to get to school.”

A third pupil said: “He has been driving overloaded for years.

“I have been riding with him since I was in Grade 4‚ so at least for two years I go to school every day in an overloaded taxi.

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