Question NW2773 to the Minister of Transport
13 December 2023 - NW2773
Herron, Mr BN to ask the Minister of Transport
With regard to the decision by the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) not to operate minibus taxi services in Cape Town, the impounding of minibus taxis and the fatal and destructive violence that erupted, what reasons were provided by Santaco for withholding public transport services 2) Whether any minibus taxis were unlawfully impounded by the City of Cape Town; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (a) what total number and (b) for what reasons were the specified minibus taxis allegedly unlawfully impounded 3) Whether any minibus taxis were lawfully impounded by the City of Cape Town; if so what were the offences that led to the lawful impounding of the specified minibus taxis 4) Whether she will test the authority to impound a vehicle without the vehicle owner and/or operator being permitted to dispute the alleged offense before such vehicle is impounded in a court of law; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details 5) With regard to impoundments in terms of section 87 of the NLTA, no.5 of 2009, what are the reasons that she has not assigned the operating licence function to the City of Cape Town, as applied for in 2014, as municipalities would be in a better position to resolve operating permit conflicts and to adequately address public transport demands on certain routes if the planning and operating licence function could be integrated?
Reply:
1. Santaco withheld their services because they felt that the impoundments of their vehicles were unreasonable as the offences were seen as minor and did not justify the impoundments.
2. Section 85 of the NLTA provides that land transport law enforcement falls within the respective jurisdiction of a province or a municipality. Section 57(5) further states that the entity granting an operating license may determine conditions under which the license is granted as long as the conditions are not inconsistent with the NLTA. It is the City of Cape Town’s contention, as the enforcement authority, that the impoundment of minibus taxis in their area of jurisdiction was duly executed in terms of the provision of section 87(1) and 90(1) read with 57(5) of the NLTA. It is widely known that the City’s assertion that the impoundment of minibus taxis was lawful is currently being challenged by the taxi industry and this is a matter being dealt with between the province, city and taxi industry at a task team level. The Department has requested the City to provide a total number of minibus taxis impounded and is still waiting for a response.
(3) Response in 2 above refers.
(4) The Department is currently studying the conditions attached to Operating Licences as per section 57(5) of the NLTA. The Department will make pronouncements in due course.
(5) Implementation of section 87 is not relevant for the assignment of functions to the cities. At the time when the due diligent study was done by the City of Cape Town, the cost to the city was more than the budget utilised by the Province to run the function and the City was not committal to cover the shortfall.