Issued by: Department of Transport KwaZulu-Natal
20 September 2000
KwaZulu-Natal Minister of Transport, Sbu Ndebele condemns in the strongest possible terms the killing yesterday of minibus taxi owner Mr Makati Zungu and an unnamed woman last night at Mahlabatini. The assassin(s) escaped in a white Toyota Conquest. These killings are a clear cut act of terror perpetrated by cold-blooded murderers. They have no interest in seeing the minibus taxi industry successfully developed into a legally regulated and commercially sustainable democratic industry for the benefit of South Africa's black commuters and entrepreneurs.
We are also convinced that there is a wider context within which this taxi violence must now be placed. The judicial commission investigating minibus taxi violence is exposing the criminal and murderous inner workings of elements within the long distance taxi associations and the activities of remnants of the third force within the police forces. Such groups are running scared and do not want Minister Ndebele to succeed in destroying criminal elements in the minibus industry.
However, we urge the police management in the province to prioritise the investigation of these murders. Such investigation should not be confined only to taxi conflict but to wider interests aimed at destabilizing. By merely focussing only on the taxi conflict we might be limiting the scope of investigations and thereby failing to apprehend the assassins and those who sanctioned, armed and paid the killers. We say this in the context of understanding how both political and taxi related violence is currently occurring in the Ulundi/Mahlabatini/Nongoma areas.
We call on all parties, including communities and the minibus taxi industry, to actively assist in providing information to the judicial commission and in bringing to justice the killers. We offer our deepest condolences to the relatives and dependants of the deceased.
Contact: George Mahlalela at 082 5666 785
Issued by: KwaZulu-Natal Ministry of Transport.