President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Woman’s Day Address Moved From Cape Town to Pretoria Amid Safety Concerns

• President Cyril Ramaphosa's National Women’s Day address has changed venues as a result of the ongoing taxi strike
• The event was meant to take place at the Khayelitsha Rugby Stadium in Cape Town, but the violent strike has made the township a high-risk area
• President Ramaphosa will deliver at the Union Building South Lawns in Pretoria, Gauteng

CAPE Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa will no longer be delivering the Women's Day address at the Khayelitsha Rugby Stadium in Cape Town, thanks to the continued violent taxi strike.

Taxi strike kills Woman’s Day event in Cape Town

This comes as the SA National Taxi Council’s strike is expected to continue until Thursday, 9 August, well past National Women's Day. Khayelitsha is smack in the middle of the violence that has gripped the Western Cape city, pushing authorities have deemed the township a high-security risk area.

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Violent taxi strike leaves over 400K pupils and more than 17K staff members stranded

The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture released the statement announcing that the women's day event had been moved and Presiden tRamaphosa will give his address at the Union Building Southlands in Pretoria, Gauteng.

Cape Town taxi strike violence escalates

While multiple prominent people and organisations, including Santaco, have called for calm, as of the 6 of the strike, the violence only seemed to be escalating.

On Monday, 7 August, two people were shot and killed near the Cape Town International Airport. Protesters stoned multiple public and private cars, resulting in injuries as motorists and families tried to make their way across Cape Town.

Pupils and staff members from Weltevreden Primary School in Philippi were harassed and chased by balaclava-clad taxi drivers as they were trying to get onto the school premises, GroundUp reported.

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Taxi Violence: 2 people killed in peak traffic as Cape Town taxi stay away enter 5th day

South Africans criticise moving Woman’s Day Event

Below are some comments:

@PHUMUPRINCE clowned:

“But he was busy flying over to Ukraine on his peacekeeping mission.”

@SonOfNgqika claimed:

“It would've been great PR if he went and also addressed the taxi issue. An opportunity missed.”

@MerdaSouth criticised:

“He is being a coward...what about people living here?”

Suspected taxi operators attack vehicle in startling video as Santaco’s stay away continues

Earlier, Briefly News reported that chaos erupted once again in parts of the city of Cape Town as SA National Taxi Council’s (Santaco) disruptive taxi stay-away continues.

A disturbing video depicting the extent of the violence related to the strike is making the rounds on social media.

The video was posted on Twitter by crime activist Ian Cameron, showing scores of suspected taxi operators running towards a vehicle and violently attacking it.

Source: Briefly News