Today, Monday 29 June 2020, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) spokesperson for Transport, Safety & Liaison Ofentse Mokae MPL, will conduct oversight inspections at two of Kimberley’s main taxi ranks to ascertain the extent of support provided to the local taxi industry by the Northern Cape Department of Transport, Safety & Liaison.

Mokae will be joined by the DA Spokesperson for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Grantham Steenkamp MPL.

A large part of the Kimberley community is dependent on public transportation to get to work and school, to access services and to buy essentials.

The DA will investigate a range of transport related complaints including that taxi operators have not been supplied with sufficient PPEs to ensure passenger safety and are in fact reusing face masks.

The DA will not sit back and allow citizens to fall ill as a result of the little to no support from government on compliance issues. We want to ensure that sufficient PPEs are provided for operators, marshals and passengers; that social distancing protocols are being observed; and that vehicles are regularly sanitized. We also want to determine whether our local taxis have received their once off payments from the Taxi Relief Funds.

Details of the oversight are as follows:

Date: Monday, 29 June 2020

Time: 11:30

Venue: Market Square Taxi Rank (Opposite the Post Office)

Media Enquiries

Ofentse Mokae, MPL

DA Northern Cape Provincial Spokesperson on Transport, Safety & Liaison

076 108 3264

Chrystal Francis

Researcher

079 2260 991