- SANTACO and the Gauteng National Taxi Alliance have given Premier Panyaza Lesufi seven days to resolve their dispute with transport MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela.
- The <a href="https://absafricatv.com/industry-leaders-urge-africa-to-invest-in-ai-skills-education/” title=”Industry leaders urge Africa to Invest in AI skills, education”>industry says the MEC bypassed its elected leadership by meeting directly with individual taxi associations, breaking long-standing protocol.
Gauteng’s taxi industry has warned it could shut down operations across the province if Premier Panyaza Lesufi does not intervene in its dispute with Roads and Transport MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela within seven days.
SANTACO Gauteng and the Gauteng National Taxi Alliance say their working relationship with the MEC has “seemingly irretrievably broken down.”
Their complaint is not about money or fees, but about process.
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SANTACO Gauteng spokesperson Graham Fritz said the relationship with the MEC had been constructive until she began engaging directly with individual taxi associations without going through the industry’s elected provincial and regional leadership structures first.
“We don’t have a challenge with the MEC going to the associations. We only have a challenge with not taking the leadership of the structures with her,” Fritz said.
He said the industry had repeatedly asked the MEC to include their leadership in such meetings, and that communication broke down after those requests went unheeded.
The industry says letters requesting meetings with the MEC on 29 June, and with Premier Lesufi on 10 July, went unanswered.
“If our cries and pleas are ignored, we will be left with no choice but to organise a protest march to deliver a memorandum of our grievances to the premier of Gauteng within seven days,” the organisations said in a joint statement.
MEC Diale-Tlabela disputes that relations have collapsed.
“I am available and I want to meet with them, but they must not stop me from doing government work,” she said, defending her department’s engagement with the industry.
The taxi industry says it transports more than 60% of Gauteng’s workforce daily. A province-wide shutdown would strand large numbers of commuters and disrupt the province’s economy.
This is not the first serious dispute between the industry and Diale-Tlabela’s department; a two-day strike shut down parts of Ekurhuleni last year over impounded taxis, and rank closures were threatened in 2025 following deadly taxi-related violence in Soweto.
