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Meter taxi drivers downloaded Bolt’s apps and requested a ride as customers, said Bongani Lucky *, a Bolt driver in the Vaal Triangle in Gauteng.
“When you arrive at the collection point, it is not the customer but the taxi drivers … I was lucky because they listened to me but usually they beat you and took your money,” he said.
According to Lucky, violence and threats from meter taxi drivers towards electronic call drivers in the Vaal Triangle increased during the Covid-19 shutdown.
Lucky said he has been stopped by taxi drivers about five times since he joined Bolt in February.
“They wait for you in places where there are a lot of customers like shopping centers and they threaten you. It’s really difficult for us, especially at the end of the month because that’s when people ask a lot of us and we earn money, ”he said.
Lucky now drives more than 50 miles a day to and from Johannesburg to work after taxi drivers threatened to “burn me with my car if they saw me working in Vaal again.” The area includes Vereeniging, Sasolburg and Vanderbijlpark. You are afraid to go to the city with your family in your car because taxi drivers will think you are operating and may harm your family.
He said several drivers had tried to report the incidents to the police, but had been told to solve the problem with the taxi meter associations.
He rents a car from a fleet owner and pays R2,000 a week.
The fleet owner, who asked not to be named, said one of his cars had been seized by taxi drivers.
“They posed as a customer and asked a driver to go to a shopping center. When he arrived, five cars surrounded him and impounded the car. They said I had to pay R2,000 if I wanted to get my car back, which I finally paid to protect the driver, ”he told GroundUp.
He said the dispute between taxi cabs and e-taxis was common in Gauteng, but worse in Vereeniging. “I can’t believe this is allowed to happen. People have to go to work and fear for their lives. “
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