A last-minute meeting between government officials and Santaco (South African National Taxi Council) averted a provincial taxi strike planned for yesterday (22 February).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strike would have coincided with the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana\u2019s Budget speech at Cape Town City Hall yesterday afternoon. It would have cost the Western Cape economy millions of rands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Santaco, with eight regions across the province, had planned a shutdown of their services due to some grievances relating to, among others, B97 route, impounding of taxis and scholar transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a late afternoon meeting on Tuesday, Premier Alan Winde, Mayor Gordin-Hill Lewis, newly appointed Provincial Minister of Mobility Ricardo Mackenzie and Santaco executive met to discuss the impasse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A decision was made to provide Mckenzie with the necessary time to engage the organisation on their grievances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Santanco general secretary in the province Elryno Saaiers said a task team would meet weekly to find a consensus, with the first meeting scheduled for Tuesday 28 February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have not yet met with the delegation that represented us in the meeting. So, I don\u2019t have the nitty-gritty to unpack at this stage,\u201d Saaiers told City Vision<\/span> yesterday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saaiers believes Mckenzie may have played a role as they tried since October\/November to engage the provincial government \u201cwithout any success\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mayco member for urban mobility Rob Quintas said he was \u201cextremely pleased\u201d that the meeting led to the cancellation of the strike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a result of the progress made during today\u2019s engagement, all taxi industry roleplayers are asked to continue with operations as usual. Our people cannot afford disruptions in getting to work and putting food on their tables, and our communities cannot again be exposed to the risk of public violence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quintas said the City and the Provincial Government would make a sustained effort to engage the leadership and ensure peaceful, proactive ways to address the various obstacles. He said this will be done in the spirit of open and frank ongoing dialogue, where \u201cwe as government are able to move forward in regularising the industry\u201d, and ensuring a working, integrated public transport system in Cape Town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A last-minute meeting between government officials and Santaco (South African National Taxi Council) averted a provincial taxi strike planned for yesterday (22 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