Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters and the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) will jointly launch the South African National Taxi Awards (SANTIA), an initiative created to recognise achievements of the industry as a business and service provider in society.
These achievements are dervied from those people who have made a difference in the daily lives of taxi commuters and positioned the taxi business as a true socio-economic role player in the communities it serve.
In the face of the necessary transformation of the public passenger transport sector in South Africa in order to privde a service that is customer-oriented and demand-responsive, SANTACO has been an ective participant committed to broad taxi transformation.
Through SANTIA, which is a “Proudly SA” endorsed initiaitve SANTACO seeks to confer all those who will ultimately be known as Champions of CHANGE with these Taxi Awards as part the industry’s unbendable drive for transformation in good service, proper entrepreneurial conduct and general behavioural change.
SANTIA whose Patron is the Honourable State President Jaco Zuma espouses the SANTACO’s Hlokomela campaign which means “To Care” by providing a service that is customer-oriented, actively participate in reducing road carnage, bolster government road safety initiatives and programme, unifying, empower women and professionalising the taxi industry.
Whilst the industry acknowldges public perceptions about its service based on daily commuter experiences, there are good untold stories and unsung heroes and heroines whose encounter with commuters have been a lasting experience.
We remember 2014 when taxi driver Thilivhali Singo from Meadowlands whose random act of kindness went viral on social media when he offered a free ride to a young graduate desperate to reach his interview appointment for prospective employment but didn’t have sufficient taxi fare.
We cannot forget 2006 when the City Press reported about another taxi driver who preserved the life of a baby born in his taxi when he arrnaged for another taxi for his passengers in order to rash the mom and the new born to the nearest clininc. This was after the preganant girl went into labour halfway to her intended hospital destination.
Just in the beginning of 2016, Transport Minister road safety statistics dispelled widepsread belief that taxis are the root cause of fatalities on the South African roads. In her report, taxis accounted for 10.1% of the total crashes while small motor vehicles stood at 47.9% followed by light vehicles at 22%. This compared to the less than 5% taxi related road fatalities reported in 2010 by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), is a concerning rise.
As we retreat to find what we missed that we did right in 2010 and subsequent two years, we strongly believe that the Taxi Awards contrbutes towards benchmarking progress and regress of our transformation agenda.
These SA Taxi Awards will be adjudicated by an independent panel of judges and audited by Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo Systems firm.
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