Limpopo MEC for Transport and Community Safety, Florence Radzilani, has announced that the department has made a deal with organs of the taxi industry.
Radzilani said the deal brings an end to the many years of an embargo on the issuing of operating licenses for minibus taxis and subsequent inability to issue operating licenses due to inadequate information on transport plans from planning authorities.
The MEC made this announcement during a meeting attended by the provincial South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) and the National Taxi Alliance (NTA) on Tuesday.
The last time the Provincial Department of Transport and Community Safety issued operating licenses to the industry, was in the early 2000.
Enactment of the National Land Transport Transition Act
According to Limpopo Department Of Transport And Community Safety, the process was put on hold in 2000, after the enactment of the National Land Transport Transition Act, 2000, which provided for the conversion of operating permits into route based operating licenses and the recapitalization of the taxi industry in South Africa.
The enactment of the National Land Transport Act, 5 of 2009, which wholy repealed the NLTTA of 2000 , had charged Municipalities with the critical task of becoming planning authorities.
As planning authorities Municipalities are required to have updated Integrated Transport Plans – ITP’s, which will be used as a guideline to regulate the industry.
ITP’s in their nature, are used to gauge demand and supply, within the public transport sector, and to also make assessments on the number of vehicles required, on each route.
This exercise will curtail eventualities of vehicle saturation on operated routes, – which has the potential to stifle business.
MEC Radzilani’s deal with the taxi industry, has started in earnest, a process where the department will assist the municipalities to conclude their ITP’s, and eventually issue the much-needed operating licenses, to operators.
Both taxi organizations, Santaco and NTA, have welcomed this announcement, and have hailed MEC Radzilani’s courage, ‘to bring to an end, many years of tensions between the industry and government’.