Annually during October, we celebrate Transport Month to increase awareness among South Africans of road safety. Transport Month is celebrated under the theme: “Together moving South Africa forward”. I use public transport a lot, we get emotionally abused; we also put our life’s in danger.

Some of us have to use public transport twice a day, especially taxis. Most taxi drivers don’t care about the safety of their passengers, they only worship money. They drive like headless chickens, we just keep quiet because wow! If you say something they’ll insult you.

They can even drop off a passenger in the middle of nowhere when they forgot their wallet at home, instead of coming up with a solution. We are going through a lot as passengers. The other thing is they also put our life in danger by not wearing masks and sanitisers are nowhere to be found. The passenger next to the driver is forced to count money without getting sanitised afterwards.

I don’t want to mention the story if there is shortage of money, there will be a huge conflict. I think the reason why taxi drivers are sometimes rude or aggressive is because they drive all day and that can take a toll on someone. Also, they want passengers to feel their presence.

Lastly, I think some of them simply have bad days and sadly you got in the way of one of those bad days. That’s no excuse, we all have problems and bad days. There are overcrowded taxis that are clearly not roadworthy. Let’s work together to avoid unnecessary accidents and rudeness towards each other.

Sara Makala, Three Rivers, Sedibeng