Cape Town - The Western Cape government has dragged the Cape Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) to court regarding the recent “blockade” of vehicles transporting thousands of children to schools.
And although Codeta has agreed to stand down until the matter is finalised, it’s clear there is no love lost between the association and Education MEC David Maynier.
Maynier feels the taxi bosses are trying to strong-arm the department into scholar transport contracts by “harassing and threatening learner transport operators, private transport, and even parents driving their children to school”.
Codeta feels hard-done-by over Maynier’s approach.
The WCED last week recorded 13700 cases of absence by pupils, and said 12 schools in Khayelitsha and Mfuleni were affected.
Maynier and the Department of Mobility are applicants in the court case, where an undertaking has been agreed on, with Codeta, for the application to be heard on February 24.
The undertaking paves the way for the Khayelitsha School Governing Body Association to submit their application as an amicus curiae by tomorrow, February 21, for Codeta’s submission of its responding affidavits on the same day, and the provincial government’s submission of its answering affidavits by Thursday.
In court, Codeta agreed not to “obstruct, interfere and stop the transporting of learners” and service providers from transporting pupils to schools or issue threats to the applicants.
Codeta spokesperson Andile Khanyi told the Cape Argus that Maynier had never met them and instead wrote correspondence to parents of children who use private contractors.
He said Codeta last year met WCED deputy director-general Salie Abrahams, who thanked them for approaching WCED about the contracts as the department no longer had fixed-term agreements with service providers, and largely relied on month-to-month contracts.
Khanyi said WCED spent a year “playing hide and seek” after the 2022 meeting with Abrahams.
“This one who is the MEC is making allegations, but he’s never sat with us and yet he’s calling us extortionists. He’s being misinformed.”
Khanyi said they’re now transporting pupils for free, but they anticipate the government will claim there is no budget for taxis to transport pupils.
“Another thing you have to look at is that these buses don’t appear fit to transport pupils, which begs the question: how do they get roadworthy (licences) and permits?” Khanyi said.
Maynier said: “Codeta has backed down and agreed to an interim arrangement whereby they will suspend their illegal blockade of our learner transport scheme operators until such time as the matter can be heard before the court.”
Maynier doubled down on his stance on taxis by opening a criminal complaint with the police against taxi associations “currently preventing our children from getting to school”.
“I provided a variety of evidence to them, including the statement issued by Codeta, which announces the hijacking of our learner transport scheme routes,” he said.
“The prevention of children from attending school in order to score contracts infringes children’s constitutional rights to education.
“They would immediately and unconditionally end their blockade if they cared at all about the well-being of our children. Clearly, they don’t.”
Khayelitsha Development Forum chairperson Ndithini Tyhido held a marathon meeting with, among others, police, ANC councillor Xolani Sotashe, DA, EFF, ANC MPs Bheki Hadebe and Qubudile Dyantyi and the Khayelitsha School Governing Body Association about the matter.
Thyido and Sotashe promised to speak after the meeting, but were not done at the time of writing.