Jungle justice: taxi drivers force rivals off the road
Tensions rise between taxi associations.
Taxi associations once again showed their disregard for the law.
On the morning of 9 September members of the Dobsonville Roodepoort Leratong Johannesburg Taxi Association (Dorljota) meted out their own brand of jungle justice by pulling taxis belonging to their rivals – the Krugersdorp Taxi Association – off the road and forcing their passengers off the vehicles. Then the rival taxi drivers were forced to return to Krugersdorp.
The ‘roadblock’ took place at the intersection of Ontdekkers and CR Swart Roads. At least three marked Dorljota ‘patrol cars’ could be seen, of which two were parked in the slipway from CR Swart Road onto Ontdekkers Road.
Groups of Dorljota members were manning all four corners of the intersection. Although two police vehicles drove past they did not care to intervene despite the taxi association’s members disrupting the traffic.
Members of Dorljota reacted rudely to the Record’s enquiries and threatened the journalist when he took pictures. It was clear that the men do not have any understanding of journalists’ rights.
“Don’t get a lawyer, get an advocate,” was one of the taxi drivers’ threats to the Record’s journalist.
The arrival of Dorljota’s Public Relations Officer Zebalon Simelane to a degree pacified the situation.
This ‘roadblock’ comes in the aftermath of an incident at Westgate shopping centre on 8 September where five vehicles were damaged, two arrests were made and one person sustained minor injuries.
According to Simelane the actions of the Dorljota members are in retaliation for similar actions by the Krugersdorp Taxi Association.
“This problem has not started today. It’s been coming for seven months. They have been shooting at our taxis and vandalising them. We tried to sit around a table before, but no solution was found.
“We are now trying to meet on neutral ground with the police’s involvement to try again to find a solution, ” says Simelane.
The Record is awaiting Roodepoort SAPS’ comment.
