Fifteen-year-old Nangamso Ngcongothela will never be able to see with her right eye again as a result of the recent taxi strike in Cape Town. She was shot through her eye while crossing Kuwait taxi rank in Khayelitsha. She was on her way home after her school was released early due to the violent taxi strike.

Collateral damage in the ongoing taxi war, this innocent schoolgirl was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the crossfire of a confrontation between taxi drivers and police.

Taxi operators across South Africa are up in arms against the soon-to-be-adopted Bus Rapid Transit. The taxi industry feels that the BRT system, which is expected to be an integrated system to accommodate visitors to the 2010 World Cup and beyond, will threaten their livelihood.

The BRT is aimed at upgrading South Africa's public transport. It will feature dedicated and segregated bus-only lanes and safe, weather-protected bus stations equipped to deal with disabled passengers.

It also has the added advantage of being easier and faster to build than a light rail transport system.

In the first phase the BRT buses will be running to 150 stations positioned half-a-kilometre from each other. The buses will run every three minutes during peak time, and every 10 minutes during off-peak time, running 18 hours a day from 5am to midnight everyday.

The City's position

Many developing countries have adopted BRT and it has proved to be successful. Robert McDonald spokesperson for Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille said: "We consulted the main taxi organisation right from the beginning, and even took their leadership to South America to see the proposed system in action. They were very positive about it."

McDonald went on to blame the National Taxi Association, which developed as a splinter group from the main South African Taxi Council body, claiming that they have been "more and more militant and unwilling to engage".

McDonald did not rule out the possibility of another strike, but he said that the mayor had met with the premier as well as heads of other security organisations in the province to prepare a joint strategy in response to any violence or intimidation.

'We will burn those buses'

The National Taxi Association (NTA) mostly represents illegal taxi operators who do not hold valid operating licences. In Cape Town, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth, this group has called for the IRT (Integrated Rapid Transit) system to be stopped, because they claim that it will cost them their jobs.

According to McDonald, the City of Cape Town has repeatedly made it clear to them that this is not so and that the City needs taxi operators and drivers to be part of the IRT system to make it work.

Some of the NTA members believe that the IRT will be like the failed Taxi Recapitalisation Programme. But it is not — it does not require them to put any money in and it will increase the number of people using the public transport and so create jobs and more income for them.

A taxi owner belonging to NTA has denied that they were taken to South America. "That's a lie, the government took ANC members to Brazil and they liked the BRT not us. We are the only black-owned business in this country and why is the government trying to put us out of business? We have kids that are in universities, how are we supposed to support them if we travel for shorter distances?"

He went on to say that they made it clear to the government from day one that they did not endorse the bus system. When asked about the way forward he said: "Jeff Radebe (transport minister) told us that they are going ahead with the BRT, so we have no choice but to disrupt the World Cup. We will burn those buses."

The taxi owner believes that they are fighting for their rights the "only way we know how". When asked what he meant, he said: "We will unleash violence in all the major cities. We will travel to all the cities and hell will break loose until the government gives in."

He said that they refuse to be bullied around just because they "are uneducated and do not pay taxes. If the government want us to pay taxes he must fund us and then we can pay taxes," he said.

The taxi owner said that they walked out of the recent negotiations with Mayor Helen Zille because she is "big-headed" and they cannot continue negotiations with her. He also accused the mayor of investing in the BRT.

On the next page: A history of violence and an outrageous death toll...