Before starting their Annual General Meeting in Worcester this week Western Cape SANTACO (South African National Taxi Council) members gathered on the N1 to pray for safety on the roads ahead of the Christmas holiday season.
“We felt we needed to do that because we understand that we are fighting a spiritual battle,” said Western Cape SANTACO chairman Vernon Billet in an interview yesterday.
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He said that road safety is a high priority of the Western Cape taxi industry as it draws to the close of a momentous year in which they had achieved and maintained peace between rival taxi groups, and members committed themselves to changing the way they did business in order to improve the image of the industry.
“All that remains is for us to action those resolutions,” he said.
He acknowledged that there had been some internal taxi violence recently but said it was being dealt with.
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In March the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) and Cape Organisation of Democratic Taxi Associations (CODETA) which had a history of violent rivalry spanning decades made peace and held several prayer meetings in Cape Town and a public repentance service at the Phillippi Stadium. They were assisted in the process by church leaders whose help they had sought.
