Santaco goes to court over latest taxi impoundments in Cape Town

The SA Taxi Council (Santaco) has gone to court to seek an interdict to compel the City of Cape Town to release recently impounded minibus taxis.

Santaco’s provincial chair Nceba Enge explained the organisation’s petition in a 27-page affidavit filed in the high court.

Santaco wants the court to compel the city to abide by the terms of an agreement reached by the parties on August 10, which led to the end of a disruptive weeklong strike by the industry in the province.

Santaco wants the city and provincial mobility MEC to “impound only the minibus taxis provided for in the agreement”. 

The agreement, Enge said, was that taxis should be impounded if they did not have operating licences, where a driver did not have a professional driver’s permit or driver’s licence and when the vehicle is unroadworthy.

He asked the court to direct the city and MEC to immediately release “any and all minibus taxis impounded on August 10 2023on the grounds other than those referenced.

The city and provincial government said on Thursday that Santaco’s interdict presented an opportunity to make the full terms of the agreement an order of court.

“As per the agreement signed by all parties, impoundments continue under the National Land Transport Act for vehicles driving without an operating licence, driver’s licence or PDP, or which are not roadworthy,” said urban mobility MMC Rob Quintas.

Enge said in his affidavit that in the week leading up to the strike Santaco gave all stakeholders notice of its intended stay away.

“Instead of preparing for the stayaway, to ensure that commuters would have adequate alternative transport at their disposal, [the city] retaliated by embarking on an even harsher impoundment within its CBD. This operation culminated in the unfortunate incident (captured on video). The video depicts a violent abuse of power by law enforcement, against the driver, the taxi and the other occupants in flagrant disregard of both their common law and constitutional rights.” 

He said Santaco met the city, mobility MEC and others on August 4, “in an attempt to reach an amicable agreement regarding the impoundment of minibus taxis to bring an immediate end to the stayaway for the benefit of all parties concerned”.

Enge said during the first meeting the city and MEC presented Santaco with a proposal which stated that taxis would be impounded under eight specific transgressions. He said this included a “plethora of minor offences (some 40-plus infringements) including smoking, being rude to a law enforcement officer and so on”.

“In fact, the grounds of immediate impoundments of taxis without notice are so wide that any minor infringement could justify the implementation of this immediate sanction,” the affidavit reads.

“In essence the ‘settlement proposals’ required [Santaco] to agree to wider grounds for impoundment as even envisaged by the constitutionally challenged municipal bylaw.” 

Enge said Santaco’s refusal to sign the agreement was “met with comments by the mayor in the media to extent that [Santaco] and its members are nothing more than a taxi mafia and are criminals, [the city ] cannot negotiate with a literal gun to its head”. 

“The true facts are that at all relevant times the mayor was aware that no Santaco members attended the meeting on August 4 2023 armed with firearms,” the affidavit reads. 

“Counsel for the city (under instructions) repeated the allegation that the city refused to negotiate with Santaco because they brought AK-47s to the negotiations on Tuesday, August 8. In reality, it was the external security company charged with protection of Santaco’s management that were armed with firearms, for the purpose of their protection, which was obvious from circumstances.

“Irrespective of the mayor’s motivation behind his reckless and divisive statements, the mayor, as an esteemed political figure in the Western Cape, ought to have known better than to make such ill-conceived, false and defamatory statements. Santaco has sought an apology from the mayor for his statements but to date have not received a response.” 

Santaco secretary Ryno Saaiers said their lawyer “confirmed that the issue is on the roll for today”. 

Mobility MEC Ricardo Mackenzie said on Thursday: “Making the agreement an order of court today will put an end to misinformation about the exact terms agreed to. We have been concerned by misleading information circulating about a moratorium on all impoundments, which is not correct and creates the conditions for confrontation between officers and minibus taxi drivers or operators.

“Our priority is to continue working together as government and industry leadership to ensure that commuters have safe, reliable and affordable transport options.”

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