ANALYSIS: How the taxi industry wins when the state weakens

One of the many important services the Madlanga Commission has performed for us is to reveal how central the taxi industry has become to our society. It is influencing the police, our politics and the very nature of the rule of law. 

Last week, Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni gave testimony at the commission in apparent response to what he is expecting to be asked under cross-examination. 

To listen to him was to hear a tale of a person who has struggled to do good for himself and his family, and who is well respected in his community for what he gives back. 

Presumably, he arrived at his pack of Ferraris entirely by accident.

And he said, with a straight face, that he is not at all linked to the killings that plague the industry, despite the references to “hits” and “izinkabi” that litter his WhatsApps.

This is all a reminder of how powerful the taxi industry, and elements of it, have become in our society.

Primarily, this influence is exercised through its links to the police. 

The reasons this has happened are obvious. Police officers are in daily contact with members of the taxi industry; they have grown up and still live in the same communities.

If you wanted to grow your own business in this industry, you would, at some point, require protection. You would do everything you could to try to get close to all the police officers in your area.

As those officers move up the ranks, and as you amass power and influence, your relationship will continue and perhaps become more useful and important.

For many years people have complained that they believe police officers themselves often own taxis, or have a share in them. They see this as the reason that taxis are able to behave in the way they do.

It also means that ordinary people are abused by the industry in many ways.

Many people describe being violently threatened by taxi drivers for taking friends to work, or how much money they had to pay to have their car “released” after driving into an area controlled de facto by taxi drivers.

So confident are they in their power that there have even been cases where representatives of the industry have, in interviews, defended their “right” to stop drivers from giving people lifts.

It must be their links to the police that allow them to do this. How has this happened?

An empire and more

In part it is because there were so few avenues for self-advancement for black people who grew up in townships and were denied the advantages of a suburban school. This was one industry where they could start or join a business and amass capital. When that capital was threatened, they did what any business leader would do, and tried to protect it.

This led to their links to the police.

Once they started to build an empire they found other opportunities, including providing other services that might well start to interface with criminal elements.

It is likely that in many cases the line between “criminal” and “taxi boss” is slightly blurred. Just as someone who has capital in our formal economy will have interests in many businesses, so someone in the taxi industry might seek other opportunities too.

But their choices might appear very limited. The nature of our informal township economy might make it much harder to find projects in which to invest.

And, if you are known to have money or resources, people might come to you with opportunities, or ask for a favour that involves moving certain goods around at certain times.

This might lead to these groups forming security companies, which would provide all sorts of useful services.

All of this helps someone like Sibanyoni or the late Jothan “Mswazi” Msibi to build an empire that includes more than taxis. 

This power and influence then leads to the chance to have political influence.

EFF leader Julius Malema is currently suing Patriotic Alliance deputy leader Kenny Kunene for claiming he visited Msibi late at night bearing gifts, including a bottle of Macallan whisky.

Tentacles of power

Their power does not end with politicians or the police, it extends into our judiciary.

Earlier this year, Sibanyoni was allowed to leave a court after facing extortion charges.

Kwaggafontein chief magistrate Tuletu Tonjeni had insisted on hearing the case herself. When the prosecutor failed to appear, after previously telling the court he was unavailable on that date, she struck the case from the roll.

When it emerged that her behaviour was entirely inappropriate and she would be investigated, she retired.

The only logical conclusion is that she had been influenced in some way.

While that is an example of influence in a very public forum, the informal power of this industry in our communities is massive.

During the violence sparked by the jailing of now MK leader Jacob Zuma in 2021, the taxi industry found itself to be the only voice in society willing and able to stop the violence in some areas.

Its ability to manage patrols and weapons and organise what any military person would recognise as “command and control” across communities in some places allowed it to say that the violence would not be tolerated in many places.

A recent story about the bus company Intercape provides an extraordinary example of how deep this influence runs.

Following the failure of the South African Police Service (SAPS) to obey numerous court orders to protect its buses, the company won another order allowing it to drop off its passengers at the Ngcobo Police Station in eNgcobo, Eastern Cape.

Then the Ngcobo Ratepayers Association brought an application claiming that residents were suffering as a result of this practice.

The court ruled in favour of the company.

This was clearly an attempt by the local taxi industry, which has been attacking the company’s buses for years, to make them more vulnerable. And a staggering example of the power it can exert.

‘Political economy of instability’

One of the more important contributions to the Madlanga Commission has been the testimony of the Public Service Commission chairperson, Professor Somadoda Fikeni. He spent much time studying our society before performing what is often referred to as “national duty” by chairing an important institution.

He reminded us that the constant chaos in our government offices and institutions is not the result of poor governance or mistakes. It is a deliberate strategy by people who benefit from the inability of these offices and institutions to do their job, a concept he referred to as the “political economy of instability”.

Considering the turmoil in the SAPS, and in particular through all of the turbulence within its leadership in the past few months, it would appear the taxi industry benefits from the inability of the police to do their job.

This does not mean there is one shadowy group of people pulling all the strings. But the fact is that there are many people who have the same interest in weakening the police and other institutions in our society.

From the evidence before the commission, many of those people are in the taxi industry. 

Perhaps the biggest change in our society since the start of the Covid pandemic has been the incredible weakening of the state. This breakdown of the rule of law helps the powerful and those prepared to use violence.