Illegal drivers flood Yango platform, says Nekundi

Works and transport minister Veikko Nekundi says Yango’s e-hailing platform allegedly enables illegal drivers to operate.

Last week the minister said a test of the platform by ministry officials found every driver they contacted was operating without the required permits.

According to Nekundi, ministry officials decided to test the application directly in the presence of the company’s representatives. “We… logged onto the application in their presence using our cell phones,” he said.

They then requested rides through the platform and contacted ten drivers. “All ten of them arrived and were operating illegally. We informed them that this is exactly what they are allowing on their platform, and it cannot be permitted,” Nekundi said.

“We are not against e-hailing service providers. However, we will not ignore when laws passed by this House are ignored and not adhered to. On that we will not compromise,” he said.

Speaking in parliament during a question and answer session on Thursday, the minister warned that government will not tolerate drivers operating outside the law.

“Each person transporting passengers is required to have a road carrier permit issued by the Ministry of Works and Transport in order to operate in the e-hailing sector,” he told lawmakers.

Check-up

The minister said ministry officials visited the Windhoek offices of Yango recently, an international e-hailing platform that operates in Namibia, to verify whether drivers using the platform comply with national laws.

However, the inspection was hampered after officials discovered that the company could not provide answers to detailed questions.

“There was no proper registry available for a comprehensive inspection, except for bits and pieces of information provided at the office,” Nekundi said.

The ministry was also unable to verify claims that about 1 500 drivers had been blocked from the platform. “The team faced challenges in updating and authenticating the purported 1 500 blocked drivers,” he said.

“Ministry officials have not accessed the platform system apart from the information provided at the office, which indicated a list of so-called deregistered operators, which we could not verify,” he added.

Regulations in place

Nekundi clarified that government regulates drivers rather than the digital platforms themselves. “The issue is that the operators are operating illegally without the required documents,” he said.

To address the situation, the ministry is engaging the Office of the Attorney General to explore legal options to hold platforms accountable for allowing illegal operators to use their systems.

Government is also finalising a new Public Passenger Transport Bill, which Nekundi said will modernise Namibia’s public transport sector and address emerging services such as e-hailing.

 He added that authorities are also working with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology regarding the operation of digital platforms in the country. “We are taking every measure at our disposal,” Nekundi said.

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