TAXI INDUSTRY AWAITS DECISION ON ROUTES WAR

Provincial transport bosses face tough choice over taxi routes

- BRANDON NEL

A FEW hours after the midnight deadline, the decision on whether to close taxi routes in Cape Town and surrounds still hangs in the balance as provincial transport bosses weigh their next move.

Western Cape Mobility MEC Isaac Sileku is expected to decide whether to close sections of the Khayelitsha to Somerset West corridor and surrounding routes for three months following weeks of bloodshed.

Rival associations, the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta), were given until midnight yesterday to make written submissions on why their permits should remain in place.

The looming decision follows an escalation of killings, with at least ten people murdered and several others wounded in recent weeks. Among the dead was SAPS Constable Desmond Mandlevu, 42, who was gunned down in Lwandle last Thursday.