The South African Human Rights Commission strongly condemns alleged ongoing human rights violations of commuters by taxi drivers. In order to secure redress for commuters, the Commission is committed is to working with partners in dealing with this issue.
Today’s Sowetan newspaper reports that yet another commuter was allegedly assaulted during the weekend allegedly by a taxi driver based at the Noord Taxi Rank. According to the paper, the commuter, Ms Precious Tshishonga took a taxi at the Noord taxi rank, and as she was about to get off an argument ensued with the driver over her change. She alleges that during this period, one of the men who were sitting with driver in the front, allegedly dragged her out of the taxi and started slapping and calling her names, for apparently “acting like the so-called free women who made noise and talk too much.”
The Commission is concerned about the current trend of crimes committed against commuters who avail themselves to the services of the taxi industry, especially in the wake of the harrowing experience of Nwabisa Ngcukana who was stripped naked and sexually assaulted for wearing a miniskirt, and the subsequent raping of another woman allegedly by a taxi driver.
While the Commission recognizes the indignity that taxi operators were subjected to in the past dispensation, however it warns that South Africa is now democratic state and where everybody has an obligation to behave in manner that respects the rights of others.
As a result, the Commission calls on the SANTACO to ensure that all its taxi operators, and especially taxi drivers, to live up to the values enshrined in their Taxi Pledge, and spirit of our Bill of rights, especially the values of equality and human dignity.
The Commission would also like to draw the attention of taxi drivers to the provisions of our Bill of Rights which give everybody the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources. Commuters also have the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which include the right to security in and control over their body. The taxi industry should observe these rights in order to ensure the safety and comfort of all its passengers.
The Commission also recognizes that the role of the taxi industry in transporting the majority of South African commuters to and from their places of work, education and other daily activities. The Commission recognizes further that the majority of people who avail themselves to the services of the taxi industry are of a working class background and poor. It thus follows that violations of human rights at the hands of taxi drivers have an almost exclusive and disproportionate effect on the enjoyment of human rights for poor people.
We call upon all South Africans to condemn, speak out and act lawfully against the violations of people’s rights by taxi drivers.
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