On strike in South Africa with lightening strikes in and around Joburg.

I am quickly writing this entry between thunderstorms as I don’t want anyone to believe I have disappeared. I mentioned how last weekend there was a lot of rain, thunder and lightening and this weekend looks to have more of the same. Lightening can bring about strikes and so can taxi drivers all over South Africa.

What South Africans call a taxi is what Mozambicans would call a chapa, others would call a mini-van or mini-bus and South Africans would also refer to as a combi. Today taxis all over South African joined together in a semi-coordinated effort to strike to show solidarity against a government program to get decrepit, dilapidated and dangerous taxis off the road and replace them with a newer fleet. How this will be done is beyond me as the money for this is not available unless you want to cut government funding to schools, hospitals, roads, etc. plus the support is not there from many of the taxi drivers themselves who claim they can’t afford new or newer taxis. There is a long history in this country of strikes and violence between taxi drivers, motorists, bus drivers and others on the road. Gangs even form between competitors who make money off of transporting people and products. Today, this resulted in gridlock between Johannesburg and Pretoria, attacks on buses near Cape Town and attacks on bus commuters in Durban. This article from IOL.co.za tells more on the events of today. A more detailed article with specifics on the government program to "scrap" old taxis and reimburse the owners can be found at AllAfrica.com, which one again proves to be one of the best sites for news and information about African and stories related to Africa.

On a personal note I almost always used public transport in Mozambique which include many taxis just like those found here in South Africa, in fact many were either stolen or bought here and taken to Mozambique. I know what they mean when they say some of these buses are not roadworthy but on the other hand if the government expects and overnight switch they are not thinking straight plus I am not sure that the state of the taxis is the biggest problem in SA right now. I haven’t had the “pleasure” to ride in taxis in SA and don’t know if/when I will but I know that without them this country would come to a standstill as most people can’t afford their own vehicles especially with the fuel prices here. One of those things where you "can't live with them and also can't live without them."