“The scholar transport operations strike action is affecting the flow of traffic in some parts of the EC, making nearly impossible for people, goods and services to move around. The Buffalo City Metro is proving to be the epicentre of this protest action, with blockades in some of the major routes leading to the CBDs in East London and Qonce in particular.”
UDATE 10pm Wednesday:
Kenton CPF chairperson Ferenc Toth says their information is that there will not be a taxi shutdown in Kenton. In a message to Kenton community members, her said, “There will be no strike action in and around Kenton-on-Sea as confirmed by Taxi Association… in our area. We would advise a travel advisory caution ⚠️ for people traveling to East London and going onto Umthata or vice versa.”
UPDATE 8.45pm Wednesday:
Taxi officials in Makhanda say they are not aware of plans for any local action; however the chairpersons of the local branches of Uncedo and Bata taxi associations are currently meeting.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Uncedo Taxi Association Chairperson in Ndlambe Ayanda Zoli today told Talk of the Town that that taxis in Ndlambe would not be operating tomorrow (Thursday 2 May). This was part of a province-wide action by scholar-transport operators, Zoli said.
“We will have further information following a meeting in Gqeberha tomorrow,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Cape Department of Transport has called on scholar transport to revisit their plans of a total shutdown in the province, planned for Thursday, May 2, over scholar transport payments. The department said such an action would be illegal.
“Anyone caught involved in it will face the wrath of the law,” said spokesperson for the Eastern Cape Department of Transport Unathi Binqose.
The department cautioned that such a shutdown would not only infringe on people’s right of movement, but would also negatively impact on scores taxi operators, “the overwhelming majority of whom depend on the taxi rank, have private contracts with parents to ferry learners or have contracts with companies to ferry their workers”.
The department said there were dozens of taxi operators who had no business with the government scholar transport programme.
“The Eastern Cape Department of Transport wishes to assure the scholar transport operators and the public at large that the challenge is not with unavailability of funds, but rather some technical challenges that it continues to tackle,” Binqose said.
The department said while it takes a degree of responsibility for the delay, some of it was due to some operators failing to sign contracts when they were called do to so in January and in February. Another factor delaying payments was “challenges relating to SARS” among some operators.
“To date, a sizeable percentage of legitimate invoices have already been settled, while outstanding and legitimate invoices will be paid during the cause of the month,” Binqose said.
The department said the next run of payments, amounting to R5,9m, was scheduled for Friday this week with payment reflecting on operators on May 8. The next payment after that was scheduled for May 15, to settle the payments from January to date.
“The Eastern Cape Department of Transport has pledged that ensure that the deadline set for May 15 is met,” Binqose said. “The department has also challenged operators to ensure they also play their part to assist the process, by ensuring that the invoices that they submit are legitimate and have all the supporting documents.”
The Eastern Cape Provincial Government and the provincial Department of Transport said any planned acts of a shutdown, denying people their right of movement at the time when many elderly and frail citizens were supposed to be getting their social grants, would not only be an immoral act, but would also be illegal and law enforcement would take action.
Meanwhile, DispatchLive reports that Several East London schools will shut their doors on Thursday in anticipation of the planned shutdown by scholar transport operators.
The schools had advised parents to keep their children at home, according to the Dispatch report.
