SA Meter Taxi Association makes major positive move

5 September 2017

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the announcement by the South African Meter Taxi Association (SAMTA) this past weekend that the e-hailing app YooKoo Ride will be made available to all metered taxi drivers.

This positive step is an exact reflection of a recommendation made last week at a mobility summit, jointly organised by the DA and the Freidrich Neumann Foundation (FNF), at which a panel discussion of the Uber/metered taxi confrontation concluded that any taxi driver had the right to create his or her own app, to level the playing field in this unpleasant situation.

Hopefully, this signals the beginning of the end of the stand-off between these two public transport modalities, which has claimed too many lives and endangered the lives of both commuters and drivers. To this end, the MEC for Community Safety, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, has done little to end the turf war between e-haling and meter taxis.

The DA believes that a free market encourages innovation and economic growth, and no one should have a monopoly on a product or service.

The DA welcomes the win-win solution, which should benefit transport operators and commuters alike.

Issued by Justus De Goede, DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Social Development, 5 September 2017