Transport in South Africa - By the seat of your cheap pants

ASK any middle-class South African.what are his country's worst scourges and taxis will almost certainly come in the top four, along with violent crime, HIV I AIDS and corruption. By taxi people do not mean the Western-style saloon cab but the privately owned 16-seat minibus "kombi", used throughout Africa as the main form of public transport. It is cheap, friendly, convenient and performs a vital service in countries with meagre public transport systems. But it is often lethal-for both passengers and other road users.

South Africa has 15o,ooo taxis, almost all owned and operated by blacks, carrying some 15m passengers a day, with a turnover of R16.5 billion ($2.2 billion) a year. Often dented and overloaded, they have no timetables or formal stops but swerve at high speed in and out of traffic, carving up other drivers, running through red lights and mowing down pedestrians in their rush to pick up passengers on the kerb. Competition is fierce and drivers' pay is usually a cut of the day's takings. They are a law unto themselves and the police generally seem to turn a blind eye.

South Africa has one of the world's highest road accident rates, with around 14,000 deaths a year. Many victims are minibus passengers; a disproportionate number are children. The Automobile Association found that minibus taxis were involved in almost 200 crashes a day, twice the rate of other passenger vehicles. Owners tend to cut costs by skimping on repairs. Many drivers are unlicensed.

In the past, the police have seemed to ignore taxi-drivers' lawlessness. But in a bid to stop the carnage, the transport minister, Sbu Ndebele, recently ordered a crackdown on all road offenders. In the past 11 months, more than 14m vehicles have been stopped and checked, 6m fines issued, 20,000 drunk drivers arrested, and more than so,ooo defective vehicles taken off the roads, most of them buses and taxis. In September alone, some 1,500 lawbreaking public-transport drivers were arrested. Mr Ndebele has called for reckless drivers who cause death to be charged with murder.

The South African National Taxi Council, representing some 95% of taxi operators, has aired the idea of launching a low-cost taxi airline to cater for the urban poor, few of whom have been anywhere near a plane. It says it might one day fly between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Bisho, capital of the Eastern Cape province, almost as cheaply as going by kombi. It has yet to explain how costs can be kept so low. Few South Africans dare ask.

Source of Information : The Economist Volume 401 Number 8758 Nov 05th - Nov 11th 2011