Creecy approaches banks to seek easier debt repayment deals for taxi industry

TimesLIVE

a day ago

The transport department says it has approached banks and Toyota to request easier repayment options for taxi owners on their vehicle loans to curb violence over routes.
This was revealed by minister Barbara Creecy on Thursday, who said the root cause of taxi violence was indebted taxi operators who wanted to pocket more money by taking over routes illegally. She said the taxi industry was struggling to be profitable.
'An operator will make R15,000 to R16,000 a month on an average route. Of course there are more profitable routes. You are earning R16,000 but you have a liability of R28,000, so the question is how do you fill the hole. And that is where the problem begins because you would want to operate on what you regard as a more profitable route,' she said.
Creecy said some operators have resorted to moonlighting as scholar transport operators to close the financial gap. Her department was working with Toyota and the banks to find a way to de-risk the loans, she said.
'I am not saying these financial practices justify irregular practices — they don't. But I am saying that what we have undertaken is to look at de-risking the loans.'
The industry has been marred by violence recently, with shootings and killings in Katlehong, Soweto and Mpumalanga where even buses have been torched. In the latest incident, Sowetan sister publication TimesLIVE reported that Western Cape detectives were investigating four murders and three attempted murders after a shooting at a taxi rank in Mfuleni last month.