NDEBELE LAUNCHES THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT ENFORCEMENT UNIT

The establishment of the Public Transport Enforcement Unit (PTEU) is another innovative idea that the Department of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal presents to the country aimed at curbing the violence in the public transport industry, the KZN MEC for Transport S’bu Ndebele has said.

Launching the special unit in Pietermaritzburg, Mr Ndebele said public transport, in particular taxis, transported over 65 percent of passengers in KZN.

‘A lot of these passengers do not have a choice of alternative transport. They also do not have a choice in the roadworthiness status of the vehicles. Most of these passengers also then fall victim to violence that manifests itself in road crashes, road rage, hijackings and minibus taxi and public transport conflicts that often resemble open warfare,’ said the minister.

The minister explained that like other special enforcement units in the provincial Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI), officers in the PTEU have had to undergo distinctive training in order to do their work.

To accomplish this mission of road safety and the fulfilment of our constitutional mandate, the enforcement done by RTI is divided into various special functions and units. There are, for instance, traffic officers in charge of enforcing overloading control, of which we do 85 percent of all enforcement thereof, with the rest of the country only doing 15 percent.

‘I know that some people have commented that the establishment of this unit has been long overdue. As much as we wished to, we couldn’t have done it any sooner than this. We needed to give the public transport sector, in particular, the taxi industry the chance to exercise self-regulation and policing,’ he said.

Taxi owners and operators know each other well enough and they can identify legal and illegal operators, said the minister.

‘This legalisation process started as far back as 1995 and has allotted everyone interested in this business enough time to sort him or herself out. Now it is time for us to protect the legal taxi and bus operator from the shrewd and illegal ones. It took a long time but we couldn’t have done it sooner,’ said Mr Ndebele.

The minister quoted figures from the CSIR stating the Rand value of every road related fatality or serious injury is R386 498 and R101 448 respectively (based on 2000 Rand value). The total cost of crashes to the South African economy is some R14 billion per annum. These costs do not take into consideration the social costs of crashes in terms of lost human potential, the pain and suffering of crash victims and the grief of bereaved families.

The minibus taxi industry is 99 percent owned and managed by Black South Africans thus making it a pillar of any Black Economic Empowerment Strategy. It comprises some 20 000 owners, 120 000 vehicles and 200 000 employees. It carries between 6 million and 11 million passengers daily and has a turnover in excess of R12 billion in fares per annum. KwaZulu-Natal, with 17% of the national taxi fleet, ranks second only to Gauteng Province which has 35% of the national taxi fleet.

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport is acutely aware of its responsibility to regulate and transform the public transport system that developed during apartheid, into one that can take its rightful place in a democratic South Africa. This is an exciting challenge and the department has made significant progress especially with regard to the establishment of a well-organised minibus taxi sector.

An unregulated industry is an industry that is open to abuse, corruption and coercion. Under these conditions the minibus taxi industry was an industry:

• driven by profits from fares in which speed, reckless driving and overloading overrode concerns for the safety and comfort of passengers

• in which there was no protection against overtrading and competition for the more profitable routes was often settled through violence

• in which there were no specifications to govern the suitability of vehicles to act as safe public transport, so much so that many vehicles used for public transport can best be described as "coffins on wheels"

Some of the highlights in regulating the minibus taxi industry are: the KwaZulu-Natal Interim Minibus Taxi Act (Act 4 of 1998)

• the establishment of a Provincial Taxi Task Team

• the opening of the Taxi Office

• the appointment of a Taxi Registrar to co-rdinate the formalisation of the taxi industry

• the Judicial Commission of Enquiry into Taxi Violence and Related Matters, chaired by Judge Gerald Alexander, which submitted its findings and recommendations on 24 February 2001

• the election of the Provincial Taxi Council (24 April 2001)

• the National Taxi Industry Conference held at the ICC in Durban (14 September 2001)

• the new branding of minibus taxis in KwaZulu-Natal (October 2001)

On the 10 January 2002 my head of department met with all major stakeholders and enforcement agencies at the launch of the Co-operative Governance Initiative to ensure public security on KwaZulu-Natal’s roads. At this meeting plans to establish a special unit dealing with public transport safety and security coupled with the formation of dedicated traffic courts to deal with traffic offences were unveiled. The Judicial Taxi Commission’s Enforcement Conference (April 2002) was held and it supported the move for the establishment of the PTEU, the formation of the Public Transport Enforcement Unit (August 2002) and the launch of Operation Shanela to clean up the taxi industry in KwaZulu-Natal.

The minister stressed that, for the most part, those involved in the minibus taxi industry have been only too happy to comply with the new regulations that would secure safer public transport. He said the majority of minibus taxi owners and operators appreciated that government was assisting their industry in its growth and development.

‘Together we must now deal with those elements in the industry that persistently ignore the will of the majority and the rule of law in our country. We have therefore developed, through the Public Transport Enforcement Unit, the capacity to deal with those operators who do not comply with the law,’ said Mr Ndebele.

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