Pretoria - The taxi industry wants the Department of Transport to push back the February 28 deadline for its members to get their share of the R1 billion Covid-19 relief fund payout.
This is the plea to Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula from taxi operators in Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Sedibeng. They referred to glitches that prevented them from completing their applications successfully.
Mbalula is leading the Taxi Relief Fund education and awareness campaign to encourage taxi operators to apply for funding under the scheme managed by the National Empowerment Fund.
He told stakeholders that while the taxi industry fought hard for this financial relief, the number of applications and payouts was significantly low.
The chairperson of the South African National Taxi Council, Johannes Buti Mkhonza, said the meeting provided the government with a platform to hear the frustrations of taxi operators.
“This helps to also voice our dissatisfaction with the National Empowerment Fund as far as the uploading of documents and the challenges we are experiencing from the call centre,” said Mkhonza.
Thabatha Mofokeng, from the Sedibeng Civic Centre Taxi Association, said another problem was that, for instance, the system showed that an applicant had only one operating permit when they had more than one.
Maria Dumbi of Pretoria said a lot of members registered, but when they visited the system again their names did not appear.
She said another problem was that members who had completed their applications would receive text messages stating that they needed to upload documents when they had already done so.
Ishmy Dayimani, from Sedibeng, said other challenges raised were that the Gauteng licensing board system was almost always off line.
He said some members had inherited their business and only received their operating licences last year, following delays by the government, but when they tried to apply for the relief they were told their permits were still new.
He said taxi operators said the government’s system was central to the challenges because some of their operating licences had expired in their hands while they had been waiting for new ones for more than five years.
Mzi Dayimani from the National Empowerment Fund said they acknowledged that sometimes a person would have two permits, but the system would only show one.
Dayimani said the department was updating the system and a lot of work was being done to resolve the challenges.
He said they were also bringing in more IT resources to improve services and they were also hoping for an extension to enable them to assist more people.
Dayimani said he could not yet say how many people had made successful applications and how many had been paid, but that information would be communicated as they would be visiting the taxi associations soon.
Mbalula said he heard the pleas for an extension and would work on it.
“We have this money, little as it is. I know people think it is a lot of money when you say R1bn, but when you break it down it is little.
“As you could have heard, there is no agenda. The agenda is to help you access the money. There is nothing untoward that will be accepted or tolerated.
“We want you to access the money and where there are glitches we will sort them out. There is nothing that cannot be solved. All of those issues can be and will be resolved.”
Pretoria News