Taxi violence in Nyanga raises safety fears as schools reopen

Cape Town - Urgent calls have gone out for increased police presence as schools reopen on Wednesday, following the violent shootout at a taxi rank in which a security guard was killed and seven others wounded on Tuesday.

Provincial police commissioner, Thembisile Patekile, said the individuals shot were not community members but belonged to rival factions.

“The shootout was at the taxi rank and was between two warring parties within the same taxi organisation. It resulted in injuries and one person dying.

“Seven people were left critically injured and were transported to hospital. We had our combat teams, and we prevented what could have been worse during this shooting.

“We confiscated 20 firearms, 13 of those are rifles and seven are pistols.

“We have taken 19 people in for questioning and they belong to certain security companies. They are not from here but from other provinces, we will continue following up on how they landed here.

“Meanwhile, police have saturated the area and other hotspots with deployments as scores of commuters were left stranded as a result of the shooting incident.

“The people shot are not community members but are part of the groups at war.

“Part of it would be extortion because it is about money, as they call it, it’s bucket money, we are going to investigate.

“We thank God that there were no school children at the time of the shooting and that our teams were at the taxi rank in the early hours of Tuesday morning.”

The Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) said the safety of commuters is their primary concern and called for more boots on the ground.

Association spokesperson, Nkululeko Sityebi, said they require more police visibility as thousands of learners return to school this morning.

“The safety of our commuters will always remain our primary concern. We don’t know what happened and how this shooting happened. We are also concerned about the children who are going back to school. We are looking into the root cause of the shooting.

Nyanga Community Police Forum secretary, Dumisani Qwebe, said they will call a meeting with relevant stakeholders to discuss the brewing taxi war.

“The government should closely examine the shootings that occur frequently between January and February each year.

“Last year in February, three men were killed.

“When they shoot at the terminus, kids and teachers are affected and they find themselves as victims. We can’t predict when the shootings will happen and they could be hit in a crossfire. There are four schools that are close to the taxi rank.”

Cape Argus