The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) is ready to implement disciplinary measures against its members registered under the Shesha app, if they are found guilty of the recent alleged acts of extortion and violence against Uber and Bolt drivers, it says.
In an interview, Midday Mali, chairperson of Santaco Gauteng, told ITWeb that a preliminary investigation found that none of Santaco’s members had solicited monies illegally from rival e-hailing drivers.
This, after videos circulating across social media over the weekend show e-hailing drivers from Uber and Bolt allegedly being subjected to violence and intimidation from people purporting to be Shesha e-hailing drivers and Santaco community patrollers.
In the videos, the perpetrators are seen allegedly creating illegal roadblocks across Gauteng townships and issuing spot fines of between R3 000 and R3 500 to e-hailing drivers for not having the Shesha sticker on their vehicle, or not using the Shesha mobile app.
The perpetrators are also seen forcing passengers out of their vehicles, and telling them to download and use the Shesha app if they don’t want trouble in future.
Launched in April, Shesha is a South African-developed e-hailing service that said it was looking to “revolutionise” the local ride-hailing market, through its business model that offers partner drivers an opportunity to own a stake in the company.
The home-grown app is founded by a consortium of key stakeholders with experience in SA’s transport industry. These include the Gauteng arm of Santaco, the Gauteng National Taxi Association (GNTA) and private sector organisations, with the support of the South African E-hailing Association and Gauteng Department of Transport.
Santaco and the GNTA own a combined 70% stake in the e-hailing business.
Under discussion
Mali said while the taxi associations are still conducting a thorough investigation of the matter, as a local app, it is Shesha’s obligation to protect South African customers from intimidation, and “rotten apples” found guilty will be taken through the necessary processes.
“We have a meeting coming up to make sure we fine-tune and address these issues accordingly, so that they don’t tarnish our image,” explained Mali.
“We are conducting thorough investigations together with the associations, to find out if there was any money solicited by our members. What we have found is that some of our patrollers on the ground were rough in the way they carried out their duties, but no money was taken by them.
"Every taxi member who is on the street belongs to an association, and there are disciplinary procedures within that association. If you are found guilty, you either get fined, or you are suspended or expelled.”
According to Mali, the Santaco community patrollers are given a mandate to ensure peace and security in the areas they are guarding, while also encouraging commuters to download the Shesha mobile app.
“There is no way we would allow anyone to fight passengers of Uber and Bolt because those are South African passengers and their safety is important to us. The patrollers are there to promote Shesha and make sure all the vehicles operating in the various areas are known. If anything happens to a passenger or driver, we know who should be held accountable,” he adds.
An e-hailing committee leader who spoke to ITWeb begged to differ, saying it's clear that the patrollers had been given instructions from the associations. It’s impossible for Santaco to objectively investigate itself, he points out.
“The patrollers who are intimidating and bullying our e-hailing drivers into using Shesha are clearly acting upon instruction,” says the leader, who did not want to be named.
“As a majority stakeholder of Shesha, our relationship with Santaco has been a cat-and-mouse relationship and it's going to be very difficult for us as e-hailers of Uber, Bolt and InDrive to accept them. We can never support any app that comes with military tactics to bully our drivers and illegally impound their vehicles just because they don't have the Shesha sticker, or they have not downloaded the app.”
The only solution for this, he adds, is for the law enforcement agencies to come in and start making arrests, and for the transport department, together with the security cluster, to hold Santaco accountable.
In an e-mail interview with ITWeb, Portia Keleketu, project manager for Shesha, condemned the acts of intimidation, noting the perpetrators are not from Shesha.
“We need to reiterate that e-hailing drivers are independent operators and service numerous e-hailing platforms and that taxi drivers in no way, shape or form, form part of Shesha's operations.
“Unfortunately, some independent drivers have taken it upon themselves to embrace Shesha in an over-zealous fashion – possibly because our home-grown e-hailing service offers numerous benefits to drivers that other platforms don't. But, that said, Shesha categorically condemns these actions by independent operators, and does not condone nor support such actions,” states Keleketu.
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