Police in Limpopo have arrested four men who are taxi drivers for charges including kidnapping, extortion and assault.
Provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Thakeng said the four men were arrested on Tuesday, at a place called Nobody under Mankweng policing area.
“SAPS members of Limpopo provincial tracking team apprehended four male suspects who are taxi operators, for kidnapping, extortion and assault common on Tuesday. According to information, the members (police officers) were travelling around the area, when they spotted two Toyota Quantum minibuses blocking a maroon sport utility vehicle (SUV),” said Thakeng.
The alert police officers immediately stopped their vehicle, and intervened.
“They found that a 48-year-old man who was driving a maroon SUV was attacked by the four taxi operators. The victim alleged that the taxi operators accused him of pirating as a taxi. They assaulted him, and demanded an amount of R2,500 before he can be released,” said Thakeng.
The motorist then opened a case against the four taxi operators who are members of the Mankweng Taxi Association.
Police then arrested the four accused men on the spot.
“They will appear before the Mankweng Magistrate’s Court soon, facing charges of kidnapping, extortion and assault common. The police investigations are ongoing,” said Thakeng.
Last year, IOL reported that several private tour companies which ferry tourists to different parts of South Africa expressed frustration over what they called unabated and increasing harassment and extortion by representatives of different taxi associations.
There have been numerous stories where motorists accused of picking hitchhikers are intercepted by taxi security firms and “fined” for supposedly transporting people without valid permits.
IOL has been alerted to the endemic harassment and extortion, allegedly festering among tour operators who use bigger vehicles like the Toyota Quantum and Mercedes-Benz Sprinters to transport local and international tourists to different destinations across South Africa.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from the dreaded taxi industry, one tour operator told IOL that his bus was surrounded and R4,000 had to be paid for the vehicle to be released from irate taxi operators.
“I had a trip to Mpumalanga from Gauteng. My tourists were from different areas including Randfontein, Krugersdorp, Sandton, and Vaal. I had to go collect them at the few pick-up spots before the trip. When I got to Southgate, taxi operators stopped us and demanded money,” the tour operator said.
“The other time I was from Mpumalanga with a big bus. I had tourists from Pretoria. I requested them to go to Bosman (in Pretoria CBD) for central pick-up. The taxi operators blocked the bus and demanded me to pay R4,000.”
Another tour operator said his company was blocked from loading nine tourists from the UK as the taxi patrollers argued that “black people cannot be tourists, they must use taxis”, simply because the tourists were black.
Alternative transport had to be arranged to Diepkloof where the crew of nine dancers from the UK were later picked up by the tour operator.
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