[imagesource: David Ritchie / ANA]

On Monday morning, Hout Bay residents heard gunfire ringing out, in a shootout that claimed four lives and left two taxi passengers injured.

That’s in addition to the driver who was killed on Thursday, as battles over permits to operate the lucrative Hout Bay – Cape Town route turn deadly.

According to GroundUp, the man killed on Thursday worked for the Hout Bay Wynberg Taxi Association, which is affiliated to the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA).

In what is suspected to be retaliation, four drivers working for the rival Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (CODETA) were then killed on Monday.

Now, taxi bosses from the Hout Bay Wynberg Taxi Association are hiding in fear for their lives:

The association, founded in 1998, according to one operator GroundUp spoke to is situated in Imizamo Yethu. It has a fleet of approximately 100 taxis with about 40 owners.

The operators say numerous attempts to apply for the Cape Town–Hout Bay route have been fruitless.

Instead, they say, the City of Cape Town granted operating permits to another group operating under the banner of CODETA, which has a taxi rank near to the Hout Bay police station where Monday’s shooting took place.

The taxi boss who spoke to GroundUp said the owners who had been given the permit were not residents of Imizamo Yethu. “The City granted operating permits to wrong people. And then the MyCiTi project started and the City approached the very same people, not from Imizamo Yethu, and compensated them,” he said.

He said during the rollout and implementation of the MyCiTi feeder bus route the City had only negotiated with the CODETA-affiliated taxi bosses who were paid both to surrender their permits and to surrender their minibus taxis. But, said the operator, those taxi bosses had taken the compensation money and bought taxis all over again, much to the anger of the Imizamo Yethu taxi bosses.

Clearly, that anger has boiled over.

Western Cape Transport MEC Donald Grant acknowledged that the violence was believed to be directly linked to these two associations, adding that a recent escalation in violence led to the provincial transport registrar issuing notices of suspension to the associations last week.

Suspended associations would be allowed a hearing, he said.

“SAPS, Traffic and Metro Police prepared an integrated operational plan to stabilise the area in the short term and to maintain a heightened presence in the area over the medium to long term to root out illegal operators,” he said.

Ultimately, you have to feel for the residents and innocent passengers, just trying to go about their daily lives without the threat of violence.

Following Monday’s shooting, some Imizamo Yethu residents spoke out:

Sadly, it appears that the violence may not be finished, with another driver death in Mowbray yesterday possibly linked to the permit feud.

Below from IOL:

Police have not ruled out the possibility of the Sybrand Park incident being connected to the Hout Bay shootings, said police spokesperson André Traut.

“The circumstances surrounding the death of a taxi driver in his twenties are being investigated by police after his body was discovered with a gunshot wound, in his vehicle at a garage in Golf Course Road, Sybrand Park at 4am,” he said.

He said no one had been arrested.

Mowbray community policing forum chairperson Jonathan Hobday said: “It appears the shooting occurred elsewhere. Camera footage shows two unidentifiable men leaving the scene in haste.

“Police are investigating and have not ruled out a link to the Hout Bay incident because the victims there seem to have been from a rival group.”

It’s also reported that the City’s transport officials were locked in a meeting yesterday evening, trying to map out a plan to deal with the escalating violence.

Residents will be expecting something to change soon, because brazen shootings right outside a police station rightly strike fear into the hearts of those affected.

[sources:groundup&iol]