The national taxi alliance is to be launched on October 31, 2018 in the Northern Cape, revealed Thumi Peter, the regional coordinator of the alliance.

Mr Peter said that the province has about 150 members drawn from three taxi associations within the John Taolo Gaetsewe region namely Itekeng, Bopanang and KGASATRA. There is another association from Douglas outside the region which also has shown interest in the alliance.

The national president of the alliance will grace the occasion and will be accompanied by his entourage.

Itekeng is the first association in the region to join the alliance in the province and according to Mr Peter, is as a result of untold marginalisation the association is confronted with in the region.

He said this was in great contrast because this is the oldest association in the region. Itekeng members only commute between Kuruman and the rural routes which have proven to be unsustainable though the association is registered for long distance routes. Mr Peter said that SANTACO never assisted in trying to resolve the route issue hence members have parted ways and decided to join the National Taxi Alliance.

“We had a lot of faith in SANTACO, however it never came to our rescue therefore we decided to join the national alliance”. Asked whether or not this shift from one association to another will augur well for members and directly the commuters he said that the transition should not cause any commotion because the right to association is still applicable in the industry. “This objective is to render satisfactory services to the community of the region”

“Are you going to have a separate bus rank from the one used by these other associations?”

“Not at all, the bus rank belongs to the municipality and as such, we will continue operating from the same rank space until further logistics have been put in place where authorities will liaise with the municipality for alternative space”, he said.