Taxi union blames government

The Namibia Transport and Taxi Union (NTTU) says taxi drivers act like “kudus on the roads” because of the government’s incompetence and the situation it has created.

The president of the taxi drivers’ union, Werner Januarie, was responding to remarks made last week by deputy minister James Sankwasa when he addressed protesting taxi drivers and said they had become “like kudus that jump across the road”.

Sankwasa said only 5 000 taxis were registered but there are up to 13 000 in operation.

Januarie said although he agrees that taxi drivers do act in this way, it is a result of government corruption and because the government “is robbing the poor”.

“They enjoy that money robbed from those suffering so much that they are unwilling to bring about solutions to benefit all, including the poor taxi drivers of this country,” the union leader said.

He said taxi drivers have been asking the government to regulate the public transport sector but it has failed dismally, “because we suspect they benefit from the current chaos”.

He charged that it is in the government’s interest not to regulate the industry, because it would “lose income”.

The union has been at loggerheads with the government for months now. Januarie threatened in June of this year that the union’s members would stage protests if they see no progress on the implementation of a new public transport plan.

Meanwhile, a meeting was planned between the ministry and the union to address issues raised during the recent demonstration. These issues included unmet deadlines for the classification of taxi drivers as employees in terms of the Labour Act, alleged police harassment of taxi drivers, and the implementation of passenger loading zones.

ELLANIE SMIT