The City of Cape Town calls on the Western Cape National Taxi Alliance to Halt its Strike

The Western Cape National Taxi Alliance (WC-NTA) has embarked on a strike in spite of being in dialogue with the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Provincial Government about issues affecting the existing public transport industry and the Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system.

At a meeting held between the City of Cape Town and the WC-NTA last week (Monday, 3 August) to discuss their concerns, the WC-NTA expressly stated that they would work with and engage with the City in the interests of building a good relationship with the City. The issues of concern raised by the WC-NTA in this meeting were mainly non-IRT related issues, such as warrants of arrest and outstanding traffic fines.

The City of Cape Town has presented the WC-NTA with repeated opportunities to acquire and share information regarding the IRT system. The WC-NTA has refused all of these opportunities. Most recently the WC-NTA cancelled, at short notice, an information sharing session with the City scheduled for Tuesday (11 August).

Councillor Elizabeth Thompson, Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Roads and Stormwater, who chaired last week's meeting said: "The WC-NTA explicitly stated at the meeting that they would engage with the City. However on Friday we were informed that the WC-NTA would commence an indefinite strike starting today. We do not regard this as engaging in good faith".

"The WC-NTA has had numerous opportunities to be informed about the IRT and they have refused all of them. They are not allowing their members to be informed of the benefits the IRT will bring to their drivers and operators.

"The City respects people's right to protest, however this strike is totally unacceptable as we are in the middle of a process of engagement with them, and it has inconvenienced commuters," she said.

Western Cape Province MEC for Transport, Robin Carlisle, said the Western Cape Provincial Government has also been engaging with the WC-NTA. "I have personally met with the NTA. I'm also aware that two associations belonging to the NTA at one stage are partners in the IRT. Specifically, the NTA was briefed on the IRT/ BRT system at the transport indaba in June. It is disingenuous for the NTA to claim that they were neither informed nor consulted about BRT. We have been engaging with the WC-NTA on issues of concern. We have an open door policy and encourage engagement and negotiation, however we regard striking in the middle of these engagements as negative and unhelpful to the process."

Once implemented the IRT will offer minibus-taxi and scheduled bus operators and drivers real opportunities, as shareholders, operators and employees in the new public transport system.

Current minibus-taxi and scheduled bus drivers and employees will get priority for employment in the new IRT system; they will also have an option to receive compensation to leave the industry should they wish to.

All employees in the new IRT system will receive health and pension benefits, sick, maternity and annual leave as well as fixed working hours, considerably shorter than their current working hours. The environment for drivers will also be less stressful as they will be paid a fixed wage per shift to do a fixed number of kilometres, comparable to their current earnings, rather than being paid per passenger as is currently the case.

The City of Cape Town is positively engaging most of the minibus taxi and scheduled bus operators who will be affected by the implementation of Phase 1A of the IRT.

"Our engagements with the public transport industry have largely been positive. We will continue to engage the existing public transport industry, and we call on the WC-NTA to halt their strike and continue their dialogue with the City rather than inconveniencing commuters," said Councillor Thompson.

"I appeal to the WC-NTA to resolve their issues with the industry independently from using the IRT as a scapegoat. I repeat what we have been saying throughout this process: We would like everybody to be part of the IRT process, but we will not be held ransom by any person or party. We have a constitutional obligation to our commuting public, who are constantly the victims as is the case now. We will not stop until the people of this city have a reliable, safe and dignified Public Transport System", said Cllr Thompson.

"The City once again invites the NTA to engage with us in good faith," councillor Thompson said.

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Issued by:
Communication Department, City of Cape Town