Taxi Operators Slammed After Uber and Bolt’s 3-Month Ban From Soweto Malls: “What Happened to Competition?”

• Uber and Bolt drivers have been banned from operating at shopping malls in Soweto, Johannesburg for three months
• This come after several e-hailing vehicles were torched for picking up customers at Maponya Mall and Protea Glen shopping mall
• South Africans have slammed the three-month ban as being ufair to e-hailing drivers

JOHANNESBURG - The conflict between e-hailing drivers and taxi operators in Soweto has reached a temporary resolution.

E-hailing services have been banned from dropping off and picking up customers inside shopping malls in Soweto for the next three months.

The conditions of the truce have been criticised by South Africans who believe e-hailing drivers are being punished for the actions of minibus taxi drivers.

E-hailing drivers were targeted in two arson attack incidents at two different malls in Soweto.

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Three e-hailing vehicles were torched on Thursday, 1 June, outside Maponya Mall, while a second incident happened on Tuesday evening, 6 June, at Protea Glen shopping mall, eNCA reported.

The conflict has its roots in the notion that Bolt and Uber drivers are stealing business from minibus taxi operators.

E-hailing and minibus taxi taxi drivers reach agreement to end Soweto arson attacks

In a bid to bring an end to the violence, the South African E-hailing Association, Soweto Taxi Services (STS) and City of Johannesburg officials met on Wednesday, 7 June, to have peace talks, TimesLIVE reported.

While the chairperson of the STS, Myekeleni Madlala, welcomed the agreement, the national spokesperson of the South African e-hailing spokesperson, Vhatuka Mbelengwa, said he was uncertain whether the ban was the best solution.

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Mbelengwa added that the solution was temporary and could be worked around.

Mbelengwa said:

"At the end of the day, we must try something to ensure the safety of the community and us.”

South Africans don't believe the 3-month e-hailing taxi ban is air

Below are some comments:

@lindsaymanthey said:

"What happened to free choice and competition?"

@keithspeacock added:

"No one should define what a competitor can or cannot do. The taxi industry, a product of Apartheid Era, must learn to adapt to changing circumstances and the needs of communities in our."

@RehanaTBF questioned:

"Since when did the taxi industry become the decider of where and how commuters choose to spend their hard-earned money?"

@Kathy57231586 demanded:

"Where’s our constitutional right of freedom of choice, free to run our own businesses? Democracy?!"

@TshepoSefo criticised

"No, they have no right! Bunch of criminals who treat passengers badly. A law unto themselves."

@AndredeBeer enquired:

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"So after 3 months, they will have a change of heart and allow them?"

@Douglogan14 complained:

"So sad that the people do t have a choice."

@PresentMckennz1 pointed out:

"Taxi industry have been comfortable all those years forgetting that times change and things change. Transport industry is also changing."

E-hailing drivers point to government’s failure to regulate taxi industry as cause for arson attacks in Soweto

Briefly News earlier reported that the regulation of the taxi industry has become a hot-button topic again following the spate of arson attacks against e-hailing drivers in Soweto, Johannesburg.

The drivers are pointing the finger at the South African government for failing to regulate the public transport sector, which they claim is a direct cause of the attacks.

E-hailing vehicles were set alight in separate incidents outside two malls Soweto malls in recent days.

Source: Briefly News