High Street was brought to a standstill on Thursday morning as around 80 taxi drivers marched to the City Hall with a list of grievances for the mayor.
High Street was brought to a standstill on Thursday morning as around 80 taxi drivers marched to the City Hall with a list of grievances for the mayor.
The drivers and conductors from Uncedo Service Taxi Association and the Border Alliance Taxi Association were up in arms about the state of the roads in the municipality, blaming them for the poor state of some of their vehicles and their high bills in spares and traffic fines.
They arrived around 9am and, having waited in vain for half an hour the marchers became restless and toyi-toyed into the city hall. Eventually Acting Mayor Nomhle Gaga emerged, accompanied by three municipal officials. Executive Mayor Zamuxolo Peter was out of town.
The protesters led their grievances with the state of the roads. "There are potholes everywhere and they're ruining our cars," one taxi driver said, laying the blame for neglected township roads at the door of the municipality. A further sore point were suspension-wrecking speed humps – particularly those in Albany Road.
These had triple, instead of double humps, which ruined ball joints, one driver said. They also complained of the speed humps on a particular hill in Hlalani. "This makes it hard for the taxi to drive up the hill, because you can't use first gear," a driver said.
In Extension 5, near Nombulelo, there were eight successive humps, they said, which ruined tyres and forced them to spend large amounts on spares and traffic fines. “We have to buy ball joints and fix handbrakes every time,” said one of the drivers, Mzwabantu Nkosinkulu.
“Traffic officers give us traffic fines every time because of the state of our vehicles.” Another grievance was the condition of the toilets in the taxi rank, and the fact that they close at 4pm, while the rank closes at 6pm, forcing people to urinate outside the toilets. Some people even defecated in the taxi shelters. "All we ask is that the ranks be cleaned, like every other part of the town," Nkosinkulu said.
They also demanded more drop-off zones in town. Gaga told the drivers they were aware of the poor condition of the roads in Grahamstown and promised to fix the potholes before Christmas.
“As the council, we are aware of the conditions of the road. These issues were discussed in the council meeting that we had last night,”she said. “The potholes will be fixed in a period of two weeks, but we will need money to do the roads that are not tarred.”
