WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-03-07 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
The latest spate of taxi violence in Gauteng has resulted in more than 15 minibuses being damaged and a driver being shot in a hand.
Police officers were kept busy, running from one violent scene to the next, when two rival taxi associations attacked each other Thursday morning.
The Alexandra, Randburg, Midrand and Sandton Taxi Association (Armsta) had previously accused the Alexandra Taxi Association (ATA) of invading their route, which is from Joburg to Kyalami.
Armsta spokesperson Mokgatle Mnisi said, however, that Thursday’s violence was sparked by an incident at the Noord Street taxi rank, where their drivers were chased out of the rank.
He said ATA members took over the Joburg-Kyalami route after forcing their members’ vehicles off the platforms.
“Our drivers were beaten and threatened by ATA members. The confrontation then spread to Woodmead and Kyalami, where our vehicles were smashed and drivers robbed of cash,” Mnisi said.
A few hours later, another scene unfolded at Armsta’s offices near a taxi rank in Wynberg. Mnisi said some ATA members tried to invade their offices and started shooting.
“They were shooting randomly and our members fired back to protect themselves. One driver was shot in the hand,” he said.
Bramley police station spokesperson Inspector Moses Maphakela said the man was shot after four men in a white Toyota Corolla, without registration plates, drove up alongside the stationary taxi.
“They got out of the car and demanded money. One shot was fired and they took R360 and his keys,” said Maphakela.
Police are investigating the motive for the violence.
Mnisi confirmed that a taxi belonging to ATA was set alight in the same vicinity, although he could not say who was responsible.
Meanwhile Joburg police have been accused at the Gauteng Legislature of not taking tough and swift action against the “rude and arrogant” taxi drivers responsible for the sexual harassment of a female commuter at the Noord Street taxi rank.
Joburg Central police station head Assistant Commissioner Simon Mpembe was admonished by angry members of the safety portfolio committee who had summoned him to present a progress report on the matter on Thursday.
This follows marches to the rank since the incident, which took place about three weeks ago when Nwabisa Ngcukana, 25, of Soweto, was sexually assaulted for wearing a miniskirt.
Ngcukana was stripped of her clothes and allegedly physically, emotionally and sexually abused by a mob of over 100 men.
Committee chairperson Jacqueline Mofokeng said the police were given until Sunday to summon taxi bosses to bring their drivers to the Joburg Central station for an ID parade.
She also called for the arrest – for public indecency – of the men, believed to be taxi drivers, who “posed naked” at the rank last Friday.
And two days after the protest march against the abuse of women at the Noord Street taxi rank, Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramokgopa took some time off from her official duties to lead another demonstration.
From Thursday’s march – the third in less than a week – Ramokgopa went straight to Gauteng Community Safety MEC Firoz Cachalia’s office to voice her concerns as the MEC and taxi bosses signed a pledge against the scourge of woman abuse at taxi ranks.
The pledge was a culmination of a two-day Safer Taxi Ranks workshop, which was attended by affected parties from across the province.
Cachalia said the police would be unrelenting in arresting and prosecuting culprits.