Santaco to take govt to competition watchdog

Johannesburg - The SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) will approach the Competition Commission with a complaint that government subsidy agreements with bus operators are uncompetitive.

"The subsidies have the effect of assisting bus operators in their destructive competition with minibus taxi operators, which is anti-competitive, and inconsistent with the Competition Act," Santaco said in a statement on Monday.

It had held fruitless talks with government on the matter and would now consider other avenues, including a national strike.

"Public transport subsidy is meant to benefit all public transport users. In the current situation it is only benefiting 35%, leaving over 65% [that is] taxi commuters unsubsidised."

This meant taxi operators resorted to undercharging to remain competitive, sacrificing the safety of their taxis and resulting in poor service.

"The taxi industry has had enough of this discrimination and will approach all relevant institutions to get relief on behalf of the over 15 million daily taxi commuters," Santaco said.