Mbalula’s ‘bias’ troubles taxi body

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Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s influence in the taxi industry is being eroded amid claims that the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) is shedding members to the rival National Taxi Alliance (NTA).

The minister has said that Santaco is the body through which opportunities and concessions to the industry as a whole will be made available, but only the Santaco leadership appears to benefit.

Dissatisfied members say Santaco’s leadership is unilaterally appointed and the minister knows this. A particular grievance among some factions is the appointment of Santaco’s national executive committee in May last year, which was marred by claims of bribery and undemocratic practices. Two regions of Santaco have challenged the elections, citing both the national and provincial government as respondents.

Since the court case, Santaco local associations throughout the country have been joining the NTA. 

In 2020, the ratio of Santaco to NTA members was estimated at 80:20. Today, a consultant in the industry said it is closer to 70:30. Neither association is able to give exact membership figures.

Although there are hundreds of taxi associations operating independently from Santaco in the country, the most significant being the NTA, Mbalula has promoted Santaco as the industry’s “mother body” and the “apex industry leadership body”, despite the NTA’s protests that such favouritism violates the constitutional imperative of freedom of association.

For their part, Santaco office-bearers are anxious about the minister’s failure to implement resolutions of the 2020 National Taxi Lekgotla at which the department gave a commitment to “an implementation process guided by a joint industry/government working group”.

The lekgotla, which was boycotted by the NTA because its members were denied speaking rights, concluded with a commitment to a comprehensive action plan aimed at achieving “peaceful co-existence and shared prosperity”. 

In a request for a formal commitment from the minister, the national executive committee’s president, Abner Tsebe, “sharply raised the slow pace of [implementation] of the lekgotla resolutions”, Santaco spokesperson Thabisho Molelekwa said.

Santaco is worried that Mabalula may be moved to a different portfolio, leaving the industry in limbo. Last month, Mbalula was voted in as the ANC’s new secretary general. 

“Whoever replaces the minister must know that government has made a commitment and there is a path it has in the form of the National Taxi Lekgotla resolutions. We want to start exactly there,” said Molelekwa.

Meanwhile, cracks in the organisation are widening. Two out of five metropolitan structures — Greater Johannesburg and Sedibeng — claim they were deliberately excluded from the Gauteng provincial electoral conference in March, at which nominations for the national executive committee were agreed.

The two regions refuse to accept the newly elected national executive committee leaders, saying they were not democratically elected at provincial level and as a result were ineligible for election at the national electoral conference held at Sun City in Rustenburg in May. Leaders are elected every four years. 

In a letter addressed to the Santaco secretariat and delivered while the national conference was taking place, lawyers HJ Groenewald Inc, acting on behalf of the two aggrieved Santaco regions and their affiliates, stated that they “don’t support any of the representatives elected to represent Gauteng and maintain that their election was both constitutionally unfair and unlawful”.

Representatives of the two regions claimed that the process followed for the national elections was in breach of the Santaco constitution because it was based on collective nominations, rather than on one person, one vote, as provided for by the organisation’s constitution.

The practice of provinces submitting nominations collectively for the national executive committee is historical but unconstitutional and adopted to suit the agenda of those who wield the most power in the industry, the cynics claim. 

Molelekwa said Santaco regions that choose not to participate in nomination processes at provincial level are not “fit to dictate” what happens at national level. “That is a matter of principle and they know it,” he said.

Detractors claimed that the executive chairperson of Santaco’s commercial arm (Taxi Choice/Santaco Trading), Jotham Msibi, has unparalleled influence in the organisation and in appointment of office bearers at national level. They say a slate of favoured candidates was put forward; the election was stage-managed to ensure that certain candidates got in, and that bribery was part of the equation.

Molelekwa said he knew nothing about slates or bribery but as a respected and seasoned politician with many years of experience in the industry, Jotham Msibi’s contribution is invaluable.

Critics said that after hours of delays at the national conference, the Independent Electoral Committee (IEC) called an end to the election process. The Santaco constitution provides for the appointment of an independent body to monitor the election process, but it is widely suspected that the body is not impartial. The failure resulted in emergency meetings of Santaco’s highest governance structures, after which the new executive was presented to the conference as though they had been elected.

“There was no election; there were no ballot papers; there were envelopes in which the chairpersons of the regions were told what to say,” said one source, who asked not to be named.

The Greater Johannesburg and Sedibeng regions applied to the high court to have the outcome of the elections overturned, with Mbalula and the former Gauteng MEC for transport Jacob Mamabola named in a long list of respondents.

A taxi operator from the Greater Johannesburg region, who is behind the litigation, said the purpose of the action was to force the collapse of the current leadership and ensure that new elections were held based on a secret ballot.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s influence in the taxi industry is being eroded amid claims that Santaco is shedding members to the rival National Taxi Alliance. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

“The minister of transport is the weakest we have ever had,” a local level office bearer and delegate at the conference said, claiming that Mbalula knew what was going on but failed to act.

Mamabola did not respond to a request for comment. Mbalula said the department does not involve itself in Santaco’s internal affairs. The court ruled that the matter was not urgent and relegated it to the normal roll.

But the deep rift in the industry is clearly worrying the government. After the court case, a chief director in the transport department, Collen Msibi, is reported to have approached leading taxi operators from the Greater Johannesburg and Sedibeng regions, saying his superiors had asked him to facilitate a meeting between them and Jotham Msibi for the sake of peace and unity.

Mbalula has a personal relationship with Jotham Msibi and, according to reports, spoke at Msibi’s mother’s funeral.

“Gauteng has the largest number of members, with 40% of the total taxis operating in and out of Gauteng. At the moment, the government sits with a massive dilemma. Gauteng is partially inside and partially outside Santaco,” said a consultant to the industry who asked not to be named.

NTA spokesperson Theo Malela claimed that his organisation “has been picking up members in all nine provinces since the court case”. 

“They don’t want to go back to Santaco. We offer more comfort and a better management style.”

Molelekwa said there had been extensive contact and correspondence on the legality and constitutionality of the conference and that the process is ongoing.

“The problem with the two [dissatisfied] regions is that they have not exhausted internal avenues. Until all avenues have been exhausted, the national executive committee cannot intervene,” he said.

The KwaZulu-Natal region’s Boy Zondi, seen as a favourite for president but who was not elected, denied rumours the region is planning to disaffiliate. With 35% of Santaco’s members it is the second-largest region.

Zondi said: “We are still members of Santaco, but we want them to sort out the issues that we have raised.” He declined to elaborate.

He is recognised for his commitment to eliminating the pervasive violence in the industry and pushing for accountable leadership.

Referring to the alleged intervention by the chief director of transport, one of two independent sources explained: “They said if Boy Zondi becomes national president and Mkhonza [Buti J Mkhonza] becomes chairperson of Santaco Gauteng, those like KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Free State that are threatening to withdraw will come back. Jotham Msibi can be seen to back off and be given safe passage.”

Asked for confirmation about the department’s attempt at mediation, departmental spokesperson Lwaphesheya Khoza said neither Mbalula nor the head of communications, Collen Msibi, knew anything about the claims and asked for the source of the information.

The proposed meeting was delayed by Jotham Msibi and ultimately derailed when one of the taxi operators implicated was shot at by four men in a car at a Centurion golf estate in August last year. A patrolling security officer shot 15 rounds at the suspects’ vehicle. The golf estate and Santaco have declined to comment. 

Police said 21 AK47 and R5 cartridges were found at the scene. The victim asked not to be named. Members of the two disaffected regions believe the assassination was a backlash by a Santaco leader. No arrests have been made.

This story was made possible by the M&G Guardians Project in partnership with the Adamela Trust.

To read the first part of the investigation, go to https://bit.ly/3GGqORn