Minister of Police Bheki Cele has met taxi owners and traditional leaders in Ladysmith, following a spate of taxi-related violence incidents in the area.
Minister Bheki Cele was accompanied by Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi, taxi owners and traditional leaders.
The visit was followed by a ministerial taxi violence stakeholder engagement at the Ladysmith Indoor Sports Centre on Monday.
This was in an effort to try to resolve the ongoing taxi violence and murders happening in the area.
Cele said that even with the signed agreement in place to resolve taxi related-violence in the province, those found guilty of violence will not be absolved of their crimes and should, therefore, prepare to face the music.
The area has been plagued by violence amid fights over permits and routes.The peace agreement was signed on April 3 this year following numerous engagements.
“We have never stopped talking, especially when the fighting groups are willing to talk. We are today beginning feedback from the meetings we had of the leadership, specifically here in KZN and Gauteng, especially here in Ladysmith. We believe that after those agreements will spread and go to other places where we think they are also sources of the trouble and confrontations within the taxi industry,” Cele said.
Cele said having come early to the meeting, he and his team discovered that the community of Ekuvukeni was not only affected by taxi violence, but common criminality, including murder and killings in shebeens.
It has been reported that over the past month, several taxi owners in KwaZulu-Natal have been killed, which police claim is part of the turf wars between rival taxi associations.
Speaking on behalf of the minister, his spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said the objective of the meeting was for parties to sign a ceasefire pact agreement.
“It is on this score that the SAPS, led by the Police Minister General Bheki Cele met with the owners of the main taxi association responsible for taxi operations in both KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The meeting resolved that a peace agreement is to be drafted, which will, among other things, include a ceasefire between the involved taxi associations,” she said.
The Star