The South African National Taxi Council in the Western Cape convened a Taxi Peace Summit in Cape Town on 4 August 2025 to tackle the industry's persistent violence and unsafe working conditions.
Mandla Hermanus, chairperson of SANACO Western Cape, opened the summit by emphasising the need for urgent reform. We need to write a new chapter and it cannot be written in blood, he said. Participants from taxi associations, provincial and local government and the business sector outlined the failure to vet owners and drivers as a key driver of crime and disorder .
Hermanus called for robust background checks to exclude individuals on the national sexual offenders register or with drug-related arrests and recommended psychometric evaluations to identify those with violent tendencies. He further criticised financing institutions for enabling unlicensed operators to acquire vehicles through fraudulent income declarations WWMP .
Isaac Sileku, the Western Cape MEC for Mobility, urged attendees to reject violence as a cultural norm. He praised legal operators for their dedication but insisted they deserve to work without fear. Violence is pain and destruction. It must end, he said.
Experts pointed out the link between unregulated ownership and organised crime. Security strategist Andy Mashaile noted that South Africa's taxi industry is worth 50 billion rand, with 5 to 7 billion rand in the Western Cape alone. He warned this scale attracts money laundering, drug trafficking and human smuggling.