Monday, February 6, 2012 - Mpumalanga 
| Taxi Owners injured |
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| Written by Khanyisile Mabona |
| 19 February 2010 |
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Two taxi owners were seriously injured when tensions erupted between the rival White Hazy and Topstar taxi associations last week. Elijah Ndlovu and Penwel Mkhabela of the White Hazy Taxi Association were beaten and their taxis damaged by Topstar members in Andrew Street in Nelspruit. “Police have failed to protect our members from being attacked by Topstar members. These men have taken over our route to Te-kwane South and when we moved to start a new route in Andrew Street, they attacked us,” said spokesperson for the White Hazy Taxi Association, Mandlakayise Dube. He accused Topstar of now wanting to take over White Hazy’s routes from Nelspruit to White River and Hazyview.“They have 20 lines at the main rank and we only have six,” said Dube. He said Topstar also prevented them from operating the long dis-tance route from Nelspruit to Jo-hannesburg and Pretoria. “Now they want to take over the only long distance route we have, from Nelspruit to Hazyview. We will not tolerate it,” he said. “We appeal to the police and the pro-vincial government to protect us otherwise there will be more blood shed.” Public relations offcer for Top-star, Charles Mnisi, said the at-tack on Ndlovu and Mkhabela was in retaliation for an attack on Topstar members in Hazyview on Thursday morning. “When our members were as-saulted in Hazyview, we were busy in a meeting with the off-cials from the White Hazy asso-ciation in Nelspruit,” he said. Mnisi said if the police and the provincial department of pub-lic works, roads and transport enforced the law, the situation would be resolved. “We blame the department for fuelling this tension. They al-lowed White Hazy members to operate in the main rank without valid permits. If government fol- lows the regulation passed for the taxi industry last year, the prob-lem can be overcome,” he said.Mnisi said Topstar did, howev- er, apologise to the two taxi own-ers who were attacked.“Our members did it without our consent and, according to them, it was a revenge attack,” Mnisi said. Spokesperson for the provincial police commissioner’s offce in Nelspruit, Superintendent Mal-colm Mokomeni, said police have arrested fve Topstar members for questioning. “Some members from both as-sociations have opened cases. Po-lice will not take sides with either of the associations,” he said. “We will enforce the law, and those who break it will be arrest-ed. We advice all those who were attacked and their taxis damaged to come forward and identify the suspects,” said Mokomeni. |
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