By Charmaine Ndlela and Lebone Rodah Mosima
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has blamed fraudulent operating licences and corruption inside the provincial transport department for persistent taxi violence.
He said on Thursday that the province must invest in tracking technology and cashless payment systems to end the bloodshed.
“The entire problem of the taxi violence is licensing. If we don’t have the capacity, capability, in the system to manage the licensing regime – I doubt it will take us where it needs to be,” he said.
“Until we invest in the technology that if a taxi veers out of where they are supposed to be, and it is reported to us, and we receive reports from law enforcement agencies, we are not going to resolve this issue,” he said.
Lesufi said vehicle registration systems should allow authorities to identify owners instantly. He also said minibus taxis should move to cashless fares, saying that cash transactions fuelled crime.
“We need to move out of cash, because cash also fuels all these wrong things that are happening — we must ensure that we invest in the technology that will assist us, that we give you a license for a particular route,” he said.
“We must account for each and every number plate and our camera system must be in a position to pick up that number plate and we should know the owner of the driver, so that if they commit [a crime] we can get it immediately,” Lesufi said.
Gauteng has endured a surge of deadly clashes among minibus taxi operators throughout 2025, with at least 85 fatalities reported in hit-style attacks and turf disputes since April alone, according to provincial police data.
The violence escalated in March, claiming 30 lives amid fierce rivalries over routes and ranks, prompting the transport department to broker a temporary truce between major associations like the National Taxi Alliance and the South African National Taxi Council.
Despite interventions, incidents persisted, including the ambush killing of a prominent taxi leader on a Soweto highway in September, the random shooting of four people at a Johannesburg taxi rank in March, and a brazen assault by gunmen at a Katlehong rank in May that left two dead.
Hotspots like Soweto, Ekurhuleni, and Tshwane have seen repeated shootings, often linked to unlicensed operations and internal power struggles.
Roads and Transport MEC Diale-Tlabela said that nepotism and corruption were rife in the operating licences section.
“Girlfriends, nieces and nephews, cousins, all the leaders of the taxi industry are in the Department of Roads and Transport,” she said.
“We have requested the premier to do a lifestyle audit on the officials in the department, we are waiting for him to give approval and request the SSA to come and do it for us,” she said.
Diale-Tlabela said a new securitised number plate system had been launched and that the department was clearing a backlog of operating licence applications through a revised weekly verification process.
INSIDE METROS