The taxi industry has distanced itself from a shooting in Retreat yesterday with the South African National Taxi Association (Santaco) saying that none of their vehicles were involved in the incident on Thursday morning.
Also read: Shooting at Retreat Station leaves one dead and three injured
While circumstances leading to the shooting remain subject of an investigation, police spokesperson, FC van Wyk, said that the motive may well be ‘taxi related’.
‘According to reports, SAPS members attended a complaint at the mentioned address,’ he confirmed. ‘On their arrival, they found the body of an unidentified male (in his 30s) with a gunshot wound to the head and three others injured. Circumstances surrounding this shooting incident are under investigation.’
‘The motive for this incident could be taxi related. The suspect/s fled the scene and are yet to be arrested,’ Van Wyk said.
Meanwhile, according to IOL, Santaco deputy chairperson, Gershon Geyer, denied these claims.
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‘We haven’t received any news of any incidents related to the minibus taxi industry. Nobody from that region knows anything. I don’t why they say it is taxi related because the regional secretary confirmed it is not,’ he said.
The incident occurred a matter of hours after Western Cape High Court Judge Derek Wille advised Santaco, the City and the mobility department that they had until noon today to draft an order that all the role players could agree upon or he would make an order himself.
On Thursday, Wille heard arguments after the taxi body filed an urgent interdict application claiming that the City had added another condition that permitted their traffic officers to impound taxis for being off an agreed route.
Santaco further asserted that authorities broke the terms of an agreement, made on 10 August, to end the eight-day taxi strike after 14 minibus taxis were seized on Friday and Saturday.
According to Santaco’s counsel, advocate Morne Basson, his clients were willing to agree to the impounding of minibus taxis driving without an operating licence, a vehicle that is not in a roadworthy condition or deemed to be so defective as to be a danger to persons or property, as well as operating without a valid driver’s licence or professional driving permit.
‘Then mayco member for safety and security JP Smith went to the media on Wednesday speaking about four conditions in the terms (of) agreement when it came to taxis, said Basson. ‘This is already a very sensitive matter for such remarks about not negotiating with mafias,’ he said.
Advocate Anton Katz, the City’s attorney, argued that although they would support the draft order, they did not agree with the wording or language used after the terms of the agreement were modified by Santaco’s representative.
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