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Johannesburg - Metered taxi drivers are allegedly intimidating Uber drivers and passengers outside the Centurion Gautrain station but the internet service says these instances are “isolated”.
A News24 user said she witnessed the intimidation on Tuesday at the Centurion station in Tshwane.
“Earlier today I was barred from climbing into an Uber vehicle at Centurion Gautrain station,” said the News24 user.
“This was not the first time that intimidation by meter taxi drivers stopped me from getting home using my chosen mode of transport. What was particularly concerning about today's incident was that the metered taxi drivers got their way despite the presence of several police officers stationed at the entrance to the station,” said the user.
The user’s complaint comes after reports surfaced at the end of October about similar incidents outside the Centurion Gautrain station.
The issues outside the Centurion Gautrain station also come after Uber drivers and passengers said they were being harassed by metered taxi drivers at the Gautrain Sandton in July this year. These instances of alleged intimidation came after metered taxi drivers held protests in northern Johannesburg to express their unhappiness over what they called “unfair competition” from Uber.
But Uber’s regional general manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Alon Lits, told Fin24 that it’s unclear whether the latest reports of intimidation outside the Centurion Gautrain station are linked to those in Sandton earlier this year.
Lits also said that the instances of intimidation outside the Centurion Gautrain station are “isolated”.
“We are aware of isolated incidences in Centurion but it is very isolated,” Lits told Fin24.
“We have been chatting to the transport regulator in Tshwane and we are engaging with metered taxi drivers in the area to resolve the matter.
“But it is isolated; it’s far from widespread,” Lits said.
Lits further said that reports of intimidation outside the Centurion Gautrain station have emerged over the last three weeks. He said that the company is taking the reports of intimidation seriously and if needed, Uber drivers “have got access to an emergency number to call security”.
“We are looking to engage with metered taxi operators just to go through that education process and that information-sharing process around the development that Uber can bring to them. Because a lot of them come from a place of misunderstanding and not understanding how the platform works,” Lits told Fin24.
