RUNDU – Taxis operators in Rundu staged a peaceful demonstration yesterday against the Namibia Public Passenger Transport Association (NPPTA), whom they want to boot out as they claim it is operating illegally.
The drivers claim that the rightful institution they want to deal with for the issuing of operation permits is the Rundu local authority.
Hundreds of taxi drivers marched around the streets of Rundu with posters to highlight their grievances about the NPPTA, which administers more than 800 taxis in the town.
“The drivers’ registration certificate known as yellow stickers must be paid to the Rundu Town Council, like in other towns. From now on, moving forward, we don’t want to engage any association as we would like to engage the town council,” reads a petition they submitted to the Kavango East governor’s office and to the Rundu Town Council yesterday. The drivers requested the local authority to speed up the process so that they can start registering their taxis there.
“We are in a democracy. We have freedom of speech, as long as you are not breaking the law. We now chose the Rundu Town Council to co-operate with us. As taxi drivers, we will not operate with any association because we are tired of losing our money without getting any benefits,” the petitioners emphasised.
They furthermore claimed that they pay a yearly fee of N$1 400 for registration and other services, but they see no benefits in return as the association doesn’t stand on their side when needed.
“I was delegated to receive your petition, and I assure you that it will reach the intended office, which is the mayor’s office. Thank you,” said Sam Nekaro, the strategic executive for finance and IT at the council.
After receiving the petition, he highlighted that there was a motion where the council wanted to start administering taxi affairs. However, that was placed on hold at some point.
“I will have to find out from the responsible department how far it went,” Nekaro said.
He continued that when council started exploring that idea before putting it on hold, “We were using the case study of Windhoek, where we were trying to replicate what they are doing in this regard”.
New Era was not successful in getting comment from the NPPTA chairperson on the matter before going to print.