The Madness of Minibus Taxis

Asking the average (white) South African about his greatest transit pet peeve will nearly always result in the same answer: taxis.

You may be wondering -- how so??

Surely the bright yellow, light-topped vehicle that we are all familiar with in North America doesn't pose an issue for South Africans?

But there's the rub.

In order for this discussion to make sense to all my non-SA readers, I should first explain what "taxi" means within the context of South African roadways.

No, it does not denote the classic black/yellow, metered version. Those types of taxis are referred to as "private taxis" here.

"Taxi" in SA is a large 11-16 person van, most often seen in white. They are used, operated, and owned nearly exclusively by blacks. This makes it the most commonly-used type of transportation here for the black community, as it offers a cheap and easy means to getting from A to B. In a way, the informal taxi system has taken the place of a proper transit bus system in SA.

The vast majority look like this*:

*Well, to be honest, I guess I should say that they rather resemble this photo, because the vehicles themselves are usually so beat up and in various states of disrepair that they barely replicate this picture. 

The topic of the taxi industry is a sticky one. 

Why? Well, first of all, it is seen as a "black" service, which already draws pretty significant lines in the sand. 

As a white person who has never taken a taxi personally, I don't pretend to know the intricate ins and outs of the system. Nor am I trying to run it down. It is plainly obvious that it plays a vital role in the black community and I respect that.

Therefore, my purpose with this post is simply to educate friends and family outside of SA about the industry. I think for a non-South African, this type of informal taxi service is quite fascinating. We don't have anything like it back home and consequently, it offers an interesting glimpse into the SA way of life.

Let's look at the positive points first:

1. It offers a cheap, affordable means of transportation for the countless underprivileged people who do not own cars and would otherwise could not be able to get around the city. An average fair one-way is around 15Rand ($2). 

2. Taxis are scattered nation-wide, allowing passengers the ability to travel near and far. 

3. It necessitates a rather large workforce, which ultimately helps this unemployment-stricken country that is desperate for job-creation.   

Without the taxis, hundreds of thousands of people would be -- to put it bluntly -- screwed. 

Typical 5pm street corner in Joburg with passengers waiting to take a taxi home

Maids, construction workers, gardeners, schoolchildren, busboys, waitresses... they are all the hard-working, lower class individuals that rely on this industry. Such a large portion of this country struggles to survive and could never dream of owning a private car. For them, taxis are the means by which they are afforded the opportunity to earn a salary and an education. 

Not only that, but the system itself works to alleviate poverty. With over 150 000 minibus taxis on the road, the amount of people it takes to run the business is more than meets the eye. Most obviously there are the drivers and owners, but less obvious are the other folks who grease the wheels: the administrators in the head offices, the queue marshals, and the co-drivers (more to these positions to come). 

According to Arrive Alive South Africa, the taxi business is a 16.5 billion Rand industry with over 200 000 employees. That's pretty impressive. 

Moreover, it's a black-created, owned, and operated business which I think is important for the community.

This is a taxi park outside of a mall. The lanes are used exclusively by minibuses to park and pick up customers. In more rural areas, people merely stand on the side of the street or highway and wait for a taxi to drive by. 

That said... there are pretty significant issues with the taxi industry (to put it lightly). 

The top being:

1. The majority of the vans are unfit to be driven and are literally falling apart.

2. A lot of drivers do not posses legal driver's licences 

3. Drivers are known for driving in a reckless, inconsiderate, and unsafe manner

4. Violent turf wars between taxi owners

The fact is, most of these taxis are on the roads when they shouldn't be. 

I've seen vans with all the windows taped over with duct tape and plastic, vans with entire doors missing, vans riddled with bullet holes and smashed windows, vans with parts underneath scraping along the pavement, vans that literally shake and wobble violently whilst driving ... I even passed by one that was riding on four different tires, all in varying sizes! 

It really is madness.

Back home, you get pulled over for having one smashed taillight. Here, the police seem to just look the other way when it comes to the taxis. There is little to no enforcement of the vans being safe or fit to drive.

Adding to the alarming safety concerns are the drivers themselves. 

Many bought their licence under the table and aren't familiar with the rules and regulations (or mechanics...) of being on the road. As a whole, their driving is exceptionally poor and erratic. 

This problem is exacerbated by a system which runs on commission. 

How clever is this (NOT): the driver only gets paid in accordance with the amount of passengers he picks up. 

This creates huge problems, as you can imagine. Because now, you not only have bad drivers, but you have bad drivers working under pressure to cram in as many customers in a day as humanly possible. 

This results in taxis swerving, veering, and switching lanes abruptly in order to pick up passengers on the other side of the road; In vans polluting the air by honking all the time, trying to get the attention of people standing on the sidewalk to see if they need a ride or not; In vans that travel far over the legal speed limit in order to get the best possible turnover rate; In drivers cramming in as many passengers as possible in order to increase profits. 

Not. Cool. 

Most are white, but some taxis are plastered with advertisements while others display splashy nicknames like "God's Laughter" (perhaps for riders to more easily recognize them). Or, such as the one pictured above, they are painted one solid color like red. 

And what do you get when you mix unfit vehicles, dangerous driving, and over crowding together? Lots and lots (and lots) of tragic, fatal car accidents.   

3 people per day lose their lives due to taxi-related incidents in SA. 

Didier has lost count of the amount of taxi accident scenes he has dealt with in the last 6 years. No one wears a seat belt so the majority of crashes involve bodies thrown through windows, windshields, and doors. Few survive. 

I know that on my way home from Durban last year, we passed an accident scene involving a taxi. It was there that I saw a dead body for the first time in my life, strewn on the pavement and lying dozens of feet from the actual vehicle, which had been flipped onto its roof.

Photo taken from ER24 Medicare

Get this: a study done by the Automobile Association of South Africa found that there were an average of 70 000 minibus accidents per year. 

That works out to 191.7 accidents daily. Unconceivable, really. 

Photo taken from ER24 Medicare

The last major problem with the taxis has to do with the greediness of the owners.

Each owner usually runs 1-6 taxis which operate in a designated area of town. 

Serious problems arise when rival taxis encroach on their turf. It becomes a gang-like drug scenario where taxi owners feel the need to defend their territory and protect their profits by not allowing others to enter their area.

They do so with lethal force. 

During a dispute, bosses will drive follow their taxis around, making sure customers aren't being scooped up by competing vans. 

If they see another company stealing passengers, they'll drive by and riddle the vehicle with bullets. The target is the driver but it isn't uncommon for innocent passengers to be seriously injured or killed in the firefight. 

So, knowing what you know now, it isn't hard to see why most South Africans harbor a deep-set hatred for the infamous white vans. Even as a passenger it is easy to be aggravated by their careless driving attitude and shocking disregard for vehicle maintenance. 

The thing is, you really can't fault the driver. 

This opinion may get me into hot water with my SA counterparts, but I really can't fault the guy who is simply trying to feed his family and survive. 

As I see it, the problem rests with the managers. They shouldn't be imposing impossible daily quotas for the drivers to attain. They also shouldn't be pressuring the drivers to ignore faulty mechanical issues or encourage them to fix them as cheaply as possible. Big business is run top-down, and the minibus industry is no exception. 

Drivers are stuck under the stern thumb of their bosses and defying that order would likely result in them losing their job. So if the public wants change to come, yelling and cursing the drivers isn't going to do much. Change must come from the head of the snake. 

A shot of a taxi from Didier's car... just another day on Joburg roads....

Last month I sat down with Didier's housekeeper, Veronica, to discuss her experience with taxis. 

She offered an interesting, first-hand view into the world of white minibuses. Here are some highlights from our chat: 

HAND SIGNALS
One of the coolest things about the taxis is the sign-language system of communication that exists between driver and passenger.

Our public transit buses back home have LED screens that post a route number and name. Here, they use their hands instead.

A person standing on the side of the road will use hand signals to tell the driver where they need to go. For example, a finger pointing in up the air means "local". A finger pointing downwards means "outside the district". A hand held out making an up and down 'wave' motion signals that the traveler needs to go to the township of Diepsloot. It's pretty cool. If the driver is in fact going to the place that the person signals, then he pulls over. If not, he shakes his head 'no' and continues driving past.

QUEUE MARSHALS 

People called "queue marshals" are stationed at the big taxi depots. They help keep order and manage the crowds during peak travel times.

To become a queue marshal, one must visit the head offices to ask for a position. From there, a boss takes you down to the area and introduces you to the drivers. This is the only way they know you are legit. There is no uniform, it is a by-mouth basis. 

From this point, you do not earn a salary. You must first work and live of tips to prove yourself. Each driver will tip 2-5Rand (30cents-70cents) to fill up their van. If you do a good job, the bosses sign you on permanently and you'll receive a regular salary. 

ARE THEY SAFE FOR WHITES? WHAT ABOUT SINGLE FEMALES?
Even though minibus taxis are primaily taken by black people, I personally -have- seen a few (...like 3 or 4) whites travelling on board.

During the World Cup back in July, Veronica said it was fairly popular for tourists to use the taxis. There weren't any problems.

When I asked her if whites have anything to fear in regards to the taxis and racial violence, she adamantly shook her head 'no'. 

In regards to single females, Veronica said things are usually fine, but one must take care to dress appropriately. 

In her culture, a short skirt or low-cut top is seen as giving permission to men to allow your body to be touched. Wearing either will result in men squeezing your thighs, rubbing your breast, etc.

PAYMENTS
You only pay for your fare once the taxi is filled to capacity.

Once everyone is on, money is passed from the back of the vehicle towards the driver, whose co-driver then collects the cash and ensures the total is correct.

This also means that the taxi doesn't actually begin driving people to their destinations until the van is full.

So, if you're the first person on, you'll be waiting a rather long time before reaching your final destination.

INTIMIDATION

I asked Veronica why more people don't speak up to their taxi driver and tell them to drive slower and more carefully.

She said that doing so will get you reprimanded.

The drivers will either take your advice to the enth degree and punish the whole car by driving at 20kms/hr for the rest of the journey, or will simply pull over to the side of the road and kick you out.

SPEED CARDS

Interestingly enough, speed cards exist which allow you to jump the queue. They are 100Rand ($15) for 2 years.

However, they run on a per-company basis. This means that if your route home requires the services of two different taxis, you would need to purchase a speed card from both of them since they are owned by separate people. 

This card is valuable considering the line-up can be upwards of 40 people at peak times! 

It takes Veronica 3 hours to ride home along a route that would take only 25 minutes by private car.

WHAT IF YOU GET ON AND THEN CANNOT PAY?
Veronica said that talking to a queue marshal will normally get you around this problem. If you can appeal to him and explain why you do not have taxi money, more often times than not he will let you on.

Just remember to bring extra cash the next time you want to take his taxi!

If you actually climbed into the taxi and waited until the fee-collection began... well, this is trickier.

She said that while the people with you in the taxi will notice that you didn't pay, they will stay quiet about it and hope that the co-driver doesn't notice that the fare is short.

If he does, he'll turn to the passengers and ask who didn't pay.

The beauty of this?

Veronica said that no one will speak up. They will protect the person from embarrassment and pool together their money to pay for the one who cannot.

 If only the taxi bosses could replicate this noble, community-based way of thinking and give the industry better name -- one that actually reflects the good-hearted nature of the people who use it. 

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What are your thoughts of the minibus taxis? Good or evil? Necessary or outdated?