permits
17 May 2006
Pretoria - The Department of Transport has reiterated its firm position of
no further extension of the deadline for the conversion process for taxi
operators. This comes in the wake of a statement by South African National Taxi
Council (SANTACO) calling on Minister Jeff Radebe to consider a further
extension to allow more time for taxi operators to convert their permits to
licences. The deadline is and will remain 31 May 2006.
We wish to place it on record that a call by SANTACO is misleading,
misplaced, and irresponsible to the extreme. It also raises false hopes that
the deadline will be shifted. The Department believes that taxi operators can
still make use of the 10 working days left before 31 May 2006 to apply for
conversion. Failure to do so will result to the taxi operators losing their
permits and right to conduct legitimate business in terms of the National Land
Transport Transition Act (NLTTA).
The Department has however pronounced a major progress with more
applications being considered by the various boards. Today alone thousands of
taxi operators had submitted their applications to the boards, a clear sign of
willingness to follow the law of the republic and work in partnership with
government. It is our expectation that more operating licences will be issued
after the deadline of 31 May 2006.
The problems and weaknesses experienced by taxi operators are known and were
acknowledged by the Department in the meeting held on Monday with SANTACO. The
parties acknowledged that the performance by the Operation Licensing Boards
(OLBs) is uneven among provinces, with provinces such as Limpopo and North West
far in advance followed by others such as Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State,
Western Cape and the Eastern Cape. Whilst challenges remain in KwaZulu-Natal
where the Department has intervened by providing support to the boards in
processing applications within the timeframes provided in the law.
The problems within the boards should be viewed as challenges that must be
addressed rather than being an opportunity to derail the impressive progress
made with the conversion process an integral part of the Taxi Recapitalisation
Programme (TRP).
Contact:
Collen Msibi
Cell: 082 414 5279
Issued by: Department of Transport
17 May 2006
Source: SAPA
