Image: SUNDAY TIMES/ERIC MALEMA
There will be no taxi fare hike in Johannesburg next week, Gauteng transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo said on Wednesday.
This follows reports this week that 76 taxi associations were planning to hike their fares in an effort to recover losses incurred during the national lockdown.
SowetanLIVE reported that the Alexandra Taxi Association (ATA) and Alexandra-Randburg-Midrand-Sandton Taxi Association (Armsta) raised their fares across the board to R30 – a 170% increase in some cases.
Mamabolo told Radio 702 on Wednesday that he had met with taxi associations and that they agreed there will not be an implementation of an increase next week.”They want to have further discussion among themselves. The great relief is that there will not be a taxi fare increase next week,” said the MEC.
“They did understand that Covid-19 poses a unique risk to commuters and everybody. Increasing taxi fare will be a double tragedy to commuters.”
He said taxi associations would consult and report back with a proposal. “Let’s give them a chance. They will come to the table. I don’t know how long they will take.”
He said taxi owners were under “extreme” financial pressure because of the limit on the number of passengers they can carry.
“They thought the one way [to ease the pressure] was to put it at the doorstep of the commuter. The commuter can’t be [the] easiest target.”