I read with interest on Friday morning that South Africa’s minister of transport and her deputy, respectively Barbara Creecy and Mkhuleko Hlengwa, have condemned the killing of a 27-year-old Uber driver at Maponya Mall in Soweto.
It’s honourable to hear honourable ministers pronouncing on such brazen, bloody violence, that the brutal killers of Siyanda Mthokozisi Mvelase should be caught and face the might of the law.
What’s dishonourable is that we’ve heard it all before – government ministers making statements about crime but doing very little, if anything, to proactively address lawlessness in our society.
To paraphrase a colleague’s reporting, Creecy and Hlengwa said: “criminal behaviour has no place in the public transport sector, and those responsible must face the full might of the law”.
Really?
What an epiphany!
If this is how the ministers really feel, why are metered taxi drivers outside the Gautrain station in Sandton still allowed to intimidate Uber and other e-hailing drivers, including members of the public seeking affordable, alternative public transport services?
Mvelase was in the parking lot in his car when he was apparently approached by four armed attackers who proceeded to fire into his vehicle, killing him instantly and setting his car on fire.
Only 27, it’s not known who he was. Husband and father, maybe. Someone’s son, that’s certain.
It’s hard not to get angry about intimidation-fuelled violence.
It’s harder still not to point fingers at government for allowing lawlessness to continue, when they should really have sent a very strong message long ago regarding the attacks against e-hailing drivers – that government will not allow these service providers to be intimidated.
But minibus taxi drivers and the metered taxi hoodlums who have killed before drive however they please and assault people in public places without any repercussions.
The party that Creecy and Hlengwa represent has allowed this to happen. The ANC has allowed a culture of criminality to take root in South African society.
But ministers have a mandate from the citizenry at large to take proactive action for the betterment of the country and, in respect of the honourable ministers, for the transport industry.
If they’re serious about Mvelase’s senseless killing, they should send a strong message by arresting those responsible for violent intimidation who routinely get away with it.
You will find some of them outside the Gautrain Station in Sandton, preventing e-hailing drivers from using a safe, demarcated space to pick up and drop off passengers.
It’s become the norm because Creecy and Hlengwa’s predecessors have allowed lawlessness to happen.
By way of example, when the Western Cape acted with force against the taxi industry for breaking rules of the road and impounded minibuses for roadworthiness transgressions, former transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga mouthed off about how the province’s DA government was intimidating taxi drivers.
It was a serious blight on an otherwise accomplished stint at the helm of the portfolio Creecy now occupies.
Maybe we’re finally seeing real action and not just talk.
But only time will tell.
Until the next senseless killing…
