Can you even call yourself a South African if you haven’t had a run-in with a taxi driver?

Usually, it’s being cut off in traffic, or forced off the road, but Johannesburg motorist Mike Milfred can add some hammer throwing into the mix.

Milfred has now opened a case of assault and malicious damage to property, after his altercation with a taxi driver on William Nicol Drive in Fourways on Wednesday, July 3.

According to TimesLIVE, Milfred opened a case at the Douglasdale police station.

Let’s see the taxi driver practising for his next hammer throw event:

The taxi driver must have had a spare in the boot, because he still manages to smash Milfred’s windscreen with ease.

As things stand, no arrests have been made.

When the video was first shared on Twitter by Yusuf Abramjee, many of the replies said that there are two sides to every story, and the driver must have done something to upset the taxi driver.

For example:

Sure, perhaps that happened and we don’t know what led to the altercation, but we do know that on South African roads, taxi drivers routinely break the rules and resort to violence as a means of intimidation.

They have run down pedestrians, knocked over motorcyclists, and brawled with motorists.

Worse still, as we saw recently in Hout Bay, that violence can turn deadly.

Because of this, motorists are advised to avoid engaging with taxi drivers:

Eblockwatch founder Andre Snyman warned motorists on social media not to engage with taxi drivers and “put themselves in danger”.

“It might sound or feel like a good idea at the time but rather use a carefully thought-out strategy which we will soon communicate to all registered Street Talker members,” he said in a post on Facebook.

Street Talker is a service that motorists can report crime, bad driving and other problems.

Snyman said he had been working closely with City of Johannesburg MMC for safety Michael Sun to implement the strategy.

“We are aware of the frustrations felt by motorists, but this is a sensitive issue and we do not want to escalate the aggression between motorists and taxi drivers,” Snyman said.

As videos like the one above show, it might be a little too late for that.

Let’s all just try and keep our heads on the road this weekend.

[source:timeslive]