South Africa

South Africa

Mamelodi Down: How a transport spat could turn into full-blown war

Mamelodi Down: How a transport spat could turn into full-blown war

Last week, the Tshwane township of Mamelodi was wracked by violence when a new city bus line was attacked by mobs wielding mobby stuff, like bricks and guns. At issue is a hate quadrangle between Autopax, the company with an interim tender for the location’s lucrative bus routes; Putco, who recently lost their partial subsidy for those same routes; the taxi associations, who claim they are being run off the road; and the government, who actually own Autopax. The loser in all of this? The regular Mamelodi commuter, of course. By RICHARD POPLAK.

(With additional reporting by Greg Nicolson and Siboniso Mncube)

Monday morning, and as ever Mamelodi township languishes on top of a series of rolling hills, all subsumed by grey pollution. In these, the nascent days of re-upped South African militarization, a newspaper vendor with an armful of Sowetans claims that he saw the army rolling in before breakfast. (For their part, the SAPS told Daily Maverick that this could not possibly be true. But during the Age of Operation Fiela, who can fault the man for seeing spectral soldiers?) This has come on the back of Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s insistence that a new state-owned bus operator would be brought in to service Mamelodi’s many, money-spinning routes, or else he’d nuke the joint.

Last week, this dispute turned violent, and stone-wielding assailants allegedly from the location’s various taxi associations attacked gleaming City-to-City busses. Public Utility Transport Corporation (Putco) had it even worse, when one of its vehicles was shot up, wounding four passengers and the driver. Regardless, the ham-fisted way in which City to City operator Autopax has arrived in Mamelodi in order to replace Putco bus services, and the even more ham-fisted way in which the taxi associations have been shoved out of the conversation, perfectly encapsulates how the ANC has come to rule: with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. An Old Testament God, occasionally merciful, frequently less so—leaving in His wake a trail of burning tires and smashed up busses.

Gaze upon His works, then, here in Mamelodi, on a Monday morning in July: state-owned City-to-City busses, escorted by a cop cars, winding through maze of streets. Taxi drivers, cleaning their vehicles, reminding reporters that there was supposed to be some quid pro quo regarding employment when Autopax rolled into town. And the Mamelodi bus depot, in which 30 or so Autopax busses are parked where Putco buses once stood, two of which look as if they entered a truck derby and lost, badly.

A group of Putco drivers are wrapping up an outdoor discussion over the Mamelodi transport issue just as I enter the insanely policed depot. The way a Putco driver named Steven Mahlango tells it, the township’s bedeviled transportation industry is being wracked by a very South African problem—no one speaks to anyone. And if anyone does happen to speak, they’re usually bullshitting through their teeth. Mahlango, like all of his colleagues, is worried about his job. When Putco suspended its Gauteng often-hellish Gauteng services, due to the provincial government withholding its subsidy, about 140 of Putco’s Mamelodi drivers and mechanics were to be absorbed into Autopax’s workforce. Which, of course, has never happened. “Now, we are waiting for the outcome of a court case. If it fails in court and Autopax doesn’t take us, then we will have to maybe leave out families and go work in Mpumalanga—it will be a little bit difficult.”

What will also be difficult, at least as far as Autopax is concerned, is explaining just how they secured this apparently lucrative contract. According to Ismail Vadi, Gauteng MEC for transport and road, the tender process was held in monkish seclusion, mostly because the arrangement was “short-term arrangement with another agency.” But as South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) president Phillip Taaibosch pointed out to the Mail & Guardian, the National Land Transport Act of SA states that when a gap in the transportation network opens up, all “affected operators” must be brought into the tender process. Santaco and the local Mamelodi Amalgamated Taxi Association (Mata) figured themselves to be affected operators, but no dice.

And so, cue the mayhem.

But not so much for Autopax, whose paintwork proudly proclaims that the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa (Prasa) powers them. The state-run organisation’s CEO, Tshepo Lucky Montana, has been lucky indeed—he’s been mired in controversy since he was appointed to the top spot in 2010, and he has never been canned. (Deep ANC connections, you see). That said, he’s tangled with the taxi industry before. Montana hails from Mamelodi, so one would imagine that he has the best interests of his community at heart. This remains unconfirmed, because no one at Prasa was available for comment at publishing time.

Autopax’s Mamelodi depot manager is more forthright. “The situation today is good good good,” he tells me. “Because of the police” – he gestures towards roughly 50 cop cars and a couple of Nyalas – “there has been no violence. Today, 63 buses left the depot. It was a little bit slow, the normal should be 78 buses.” Morale is high, the drivers are happy with their police escorts, and everything is going swimmingly.

As it does when you’re on the right side of Operation Fiela.

SAPS Gauteng spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini confirmed that the dreaded (or adored, depending) Fiela had been deployed in Mamelodi to monitor the violence and look for other crimes, but there had been no reports of violence related to the transportation contretemps since Friday. The SAPS did not deem it necessary to deploy the army in the township, but that could certainly change if the situation deteriorates. The traffic department was in Mamelodi as part of the operation checking for traffic offences and impounding taxis without permits to carry passengers. Dlamini could not confirm how many taxis had been impounded.

At the taxi ranks on the other end of town, a driver named Danny Manamela, member in good standing of Mata, could also not confirm how many of his colleagues had been yanked off the roads, but he said that there were plenty. “On Sunday, when Premier Makhura spoke about the situation here, he said, ‘Let everything be normal’. But they are busy impounding us. This is how the government operates. For instance – Autopax didn’t have road permits for their buses. They go to the department, and get them in a day. If I buy a bus and apply, it takes me six months. You must play fair! Don’t try to wipe us out.”

Yes, but what about the taxi associations allegedly shooting up buses? How fair is that?

That’s got nothing to do with us. We don’t promote violence.”

And the fact that taxis merchants of death, wiping away South Africans like minibus-borne Ebola?

You need to be specific. I work here every day. It’s rare that you will find a taxi that kills people. In six months, we have not had a single death. Long distance taxis? Maybe. But don’t generalise! Not us!”

What about the economics – the fact that transportation for South Africa’s working class population is way too expensive, and taxis are an unpoliced mafia that remains a big part of the problem? If, as Manamela is implying, the government was trying to break the taxi industry in Mamelodi, weren’t they justified on this fact alone?

My friend, we ferry people from point A to point B. Not from point A to B to C. So, often we will fetch them from elsewhere and take them to the taxi rank for free, and the fare starts here. It’s one fare!”

Okay. So what, then, is this Autopax business all about?

Straight corruption. Look, Putco is getting a subsidy. All of a sudden, it’s cut. They know it’s gonna kill them. Then the government brings in their own buses. [When the interim contract is over] they will get full full subsidy – watch! That’s the problem. All government parastatals are fully endowed. Why? It’s corruption.”

Maybe. Maybe not. But the mess in Mamelodi is a mess of the government’s making. Putco and the taxis were by no means offering, clean, safe service at an awesome price – to assert as much would be a joke. And to suggest that significant changes to the transportation industry in this country aren’t an immediate necessity would be ludicrous. Something needs to be done, and now. But this remains a democracy, albeit one with an unhealthy jones for men in uniform. Breaking the taxi biz without consultation is just another strong-arm bullying tactic that requires the backstop of Operation Fiela, and will result in (more) innocent people getting smoked in the crossfire. Whenever this government runs into a problem, regardless of how localised or idiosyncratic, they call in the army. And on the other side of the trenches, they find South Africans who have forgotten how to talk, because no one listens.

Mamelodi remains a test case for Makhura’s Gauteng clean up. So far, he’s botched it. Too much might. Too little mercy. DM

Photo: Operation Fiela was deployed to the township on Monday and while the army was not present, there was a huge police presence at the bus depot. (Greg Nicolson)

Gallery

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