Minister Dipuo Peters condemns brutal attack of couple allegedly involving an Uber driver
The Minister of Transport, Mme Dipuo Peters, condemns the brutal attack of a couple in an incident allegedly involving an Uber driver on Saturday, 28 August 2016. During the Afternoon Drive Show on one of the radio stations in South Africa, the presenter read an email he received which shares how a couple was abducted and attacked in an incident allegedly involving an Uber driver. According to the email, a group of three couples left a club in Rivonia and booked three Uber taxi services.
One of the couples never made it home, and was brutally attacked and found in Thembisa the following morning. It is alleged that three men were in the boot of the Uber vehicle in question and attacked the couple when the vehicle reached the highway.
According to the father of one of the victims of this attack, the Uber driver was allegedly involved and participated in efforts to get money from the female victim's bank account. “This kind of behaviour stands condemned and should not be allowed in our public transport system and our country in general. This attack is not in keeping with the government vision to promote a safe, reliable, effective, efficient, coordinated, integrated and environmentally friendly public transport system.
This is also against the ethos of the society that we are seeking to build, a society free of hate, violence and crime,” Minister Peters said.
"Given the security risks that come with E-hailing services, safety should be a priority. As an international company and given its experience in India and other countries, where similar occurrences happened, Uber as a company, should have done better. I enjoin them to unreservedly apologise to the affected family and the people of South Africa for this unfortunate incident.
They must vindicate themselves and say unequivocally, not in their name. It cannot be acceptable that the service that is offered by hailing, which is used by the most vulnerable in our society such as women and children, can be left without intense safety measures, including enhanced background checks, criminal records, acquisition of drivers’ licenses, operational licenses of their drivers and a 24/7 customer support services for their clients,” Minister Peter emphasised.
Minister Peters calls upon the MEC of Safety and Security in Gauteng to expedite the investigations into this occurrence and bring the perpetrators to account.
qually, all MECs of Transport, Safety and Security in provinces where E-hailing services are operational, must ensure that all security standards and operational compliance matters are upheld. Minister Peters also enjoins Uber to ensure that they fully cooperate with law enforcement officers in their investigations.
Similarly, the Minister calls upon Uber as a company to ensure that all Uber registered vehicles are easily and property identifiable and that their vehicle owners are public transport operators as defined in the National Land Transport Act 5 of 2009 (“the Act”).
Minister Peters urges members of the community with information that might lead to the arrest of the perpetrators to contact their nearest police station. “I call on all of our people to ensure that when using E-hailing services they should send registration numbers of the vehicle and the Uber vendor number of the driver to their next of kin to guarantee their personal safety” said Minister Peters.
The Minister sends her well wishes to the victims of this senseless crime and wish them good health and a speedy recovery.
Enquiries:
Ishmael Mnisi
Cell: 072 566 0827
