Pretoria- The SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) has distanced itself from being involved in the planning of a national shutdown on Friday or lobbying for other unions to become involved.
This comes after news of a possible national shutdown have been circulating on social media surfaced following the recent spike in fuel prices which will ultimately lead into a taxi fare increase.
Santaco said it’s in talks with the government regarding a viable solution following skyrocketing petrol price increases last week.
“Santaco has never lobbied any organisation for a national shutdown, and not even planning any shutdown. We still however, hold the strongest view that there’s an urgent intervention needed from government and this despite looming taxi fare increases,” Santaco said on its Twitter page.
However, Santaco and National Taxi Association (NTA) have already warned that another taxi fare increase was on the cards due to the recent price increments.
Santaco chief strategic manager Bafana Magagula said it was a norm that the industry increased prices every year around June and July, but the difference this year was the continuation of fuel price increases.
“Therefore, taxi fares might rise a bit higher than normal,” he said.
Don’t let #PhalaPhalaFarm and #PhalaphalaGate and Gupta arrest etc distruct you from #NationalShutdown 10 June 2022
Just stay home no looting please pic.twitter.com/wJ8DmmznJb
NTA spokesperson Theo Malele said the industry had been impacted negatively with some people losing their vehicles, leading to job losses.
Experts have already warned that the recent hikes in petrol and food prices are creating a desperate society that may see a repeat of the July 2021 riots of looting and destruction that cost the economy an estimated R50 billion.
While South Africans are still reeling from electricity tariff increases, hikes in the repo rate, food inflation and transport costs, they have been hobbled by month-on-month increases in petrol prices that have now reached R24 per litre.
So far, the retail prices of unleaded 95 and unleaded 93 petrol increased by R2.33 and R2.43, respectively. Diesel went up by R1.10 per litre while illuminating paraffin, which many South Africans rely on as a cheaper source for cooking and lighting, rose by R1.56 a litre.
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said he was not surprised that ordinary working-class South Africans had called for a national shutdown because the rising cost of living had made it near-impossible for them to lead decent lives.
“Remember Covid-19 made it worse, and now we have Ukraine/Russia,” Mathekga said.
“And we have policymakers who don’t get it and still waste money. We also have the governing party that does not have a solution for these problems.
“This is why we will see such movements as the national shutdown. People believe that the system has never functioned,” said Mathekga.
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