Gauteng Premier David Makhura has set up a special task team to deal with the ongoing violence between Uber and metered taxi drivers in the province.
Makhura said he has discussed the matter with the Minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula and Minister of Transport Joe Maswanganyi. The task force will include intelligence and traffic officers, among others.
“The Minister of Police is going to dedicate a lot of support to this… We want a dedicated special task force to look at this conflict, especially the use of violence by those who are involved in this. We know that the metered taxi and Uber operators are involved,” he said.
Almost 300 attacks this year
Makhura revealed that since January this year, there have been 294 attacks involving metered taxi and Uber driver. A total 204 of the attacks took place in Tshwane, 86 in Johannesburg and four in Ekurhuleni.
A total of 28 people have been arrested in connection with the violence while 166 cases are under investigation.
“If this matter continues we can end up having violence where people are recruited to carry out hits… We need a change of gear – violence will not be allowed,” Makhura said.