E-hailing drivers, such as those using popular phone apps like Bolt and Uber, have been banned from shopping malls in Soweto following violent incidents earlier this month.
The violence stems from clashes between taxi owners and e-hailing drivers, which erupted last week Thursday, 1 June at Maponya Mall, according to MyBroadBand.
During the first altercations at the mall, at least two people were reported to have been injured and three e-hailing vehicles were destroyed.
Videos shared on social media by eyewitnesses show men hitting each other and the cars, while other clips showed multiple cars set aflame with the sound of gunfire in the background.
A second incident then occurred at Protea Glen Mall on Monday, 5 June, where at least one other car was reportedly set on fire while another e-hailing driver was injured.
More e-hailing (Uber & Bolt) cars attacked in Soweto, seen here is a car tha was torched in Protea Glen Mall after 6pm.
We condemn this barbaric act & call on relevant stakeholders to rise against this. It is regrettably & thanks to @GovernmentZA for failing to regulate ehailing. pic.twitter.com/xlheln9Rzo— E-Hailing Partners Council-EPCO🇿🇦 (@EhailingCouncil) June 5, 2023
Following these episodes, a meeting was arranged between the Soweto United E-hailing Association and the Soweto Taxi Association on Wednesday, 7 June, which was held at the Kliptown Police Station.
The Gauteng mayoral committee member for transport, Kenny Kunene, who also attended the meeting, confirmed that a compromise had been reached in an interview with Newzroom Afrika that same evening.
According to Kunene, the e-hailing representatives had agreed that their drivers would no longer enter Soweto’s shopping mall parking lots, but would still pick up and drop off passengers outside their gates.
An exemption would be made for drivers to be able to deliver elderly passengers and persons with disabilities to the main entrances, he said.
While Kunene said the “ban” would only last until Friday, 9 June, when a follow-up meeting would take place to finalize a solution, the Soweto E-hailing Association told the Sunday Times and Power 98.7 FM that an agreement was already in place that would last until September 2023 – three months from now.
History of violence
E-hailing drivers have claimed that the Soweto Taxi Association was behind the attacks and that owners whose taxis belong to the association have accused companies like Uber and Bolt of “stealing their business.”
Kunene, on the other hand, alleged that the real issue was rogue operators dubbed “maphele” (Sotho for cockroaches) who were impersonating e-hailing drivers, leading potential customers waiting at the malls to their cars and charging half the rate they would pay if going through an official app.
On Tuesday, 6 June, however, the E-hailing Partners Council released a statement saying that the root cause of the attacks was a lack of regulation, including a recognised form of driver identification in the e-hailing industry.
“The Transport Amendment Bill should have been signed into law by now to address the e-hailing legitimacy question,” it said.
It is also believed that a lack of e-hailing identification played a role in the murder of a Bolt driver by a vigilante mob in Parkwood, Cape Town, in July 2022.
That incident came after a claim on social media that a suspicious vehicle was driving around the area and abducting young girls, wrote MyBroadBand.
The driver in question, 30-year-old Abongile Mafalala, was actually transporting children to and from school.
Another point of contention has been that minibus taxis and metered cabs are only allowed to operate in certain areas, as determined by their permits.
The same rule does not apply to e-hailing drivers, who are allowed to transport passengers anywhere outside specific permit-designated zones.
Keyword: Uber and Bolt drivers no longer allowed at Soweto malls