Pretoria - Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Ismail Vadi, on Wednesday unveiled a new public transport licensing and registration office in central Johannesburg.
The new-look registration office will receive, verify and process applications for public transport operating licences. It also has a help-desk for public transport operators.
Vadi said mini-bus taxis were an “essential component of the public transport system in the Gauteng city-region”.
The latest research by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory indicates that 42 percent of commuters in the province rely on mini-bus taxis for travelling to work, school and other social, sporting and recreational activities.
“The taxi industry is central to an integrated public transport system in our province and we have a collectively responsibility to ensure that it is better managed, properly regulated and economically viable,” he said.
Vadi also called for organisational unity in the industry, saying that an “organisationally divided, conflict-ridden and fractured taxi sector” was not sustainable over time.
He said there were 185 registered taxi associations in Gauteng, making it difficult to get coherence and a common voice in the industry.
The MEC used the opportunity to announce that his department will host a Taxi Consultative Summit in May this year to discuss the long-term sustainability of the taxi industry in the province.
The taxi summit is to be part of the process of designing a 25-year Integrated Transport Master Plan (ITMP25) for the province, which is due to be released later this year by the Department of Roads and Transport. - SAnews.gov.za
