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CAPE – Their minibus taxi was traveling Saturday night on a quiet rural road in eastern South Africa when men armed with automatic weapons opened fire, killing 11 people. people and seriously injuring 4 others.
Minibus Taxi Association of Johannesburg, said Brig. Vishnu Naidoo, a spokesman for the National Police – the latest victims of a decades-long battle on lines of taxis that have claimed hundreds of victims
Drivers were returning from a colleague's funeral in the province of KwaZulu Natal when the ambush took place. 19659002] "Large parts of the industry have started to look like the mafia, where you defend and expand the territory of your business using violence," said Mark Shaw, director of the Global Initiative against transnational organized crime and author of a report. recent book on assassinations in South Africa.
"The most lucrative routes are long distances, such as between Johannesburg and Kwa-Zulu Natal," Shaw said. "That's why there are so many conflicts."
Images shared on Twitter during the weekend showed more than 250 bullet holes trapping the taxi minibus.
More than 200,000 minibus taxis operate nationwide millions of people every day, according to the National Council of South African Taxis, or Santaco. The largest and poorest regulated transport sector in the country, it accounts for almost two-thirds of all non-private commuter travel in South Africa, with an estimated annual income of more than $ 1.2 billion, says Santaco. In countries, minibus-taxis are the only viable transport option, as they cover routes not served by buses or trains. Outside major cities, taxis are also an important source of income and employment.
Since its inception in the 1980s, the minibus taxi industry in South Africa has been largely governed by violence, with documented links to political killings. Organized Crime
The industry was officially born in 1987, when the government of apartheid deregulated public transportation, previously controlled by a central agency. By the end of the decade, 16-seat minibus taxis, called "combis", were ubiquitous in the country, especially in rural townships and "homelands" established for blacks
. Jackie Dugard, who was at the time an analyst at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, wrote in "From Low-Intensity Warfare to the Mafia War," a 2001 study on violence in taxis [19659009] "Taxi associations have developed as informal agents of regulation, protection and extortion," Dugard added in her study published by the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. "Violence in taxis has become more widespread, decentralized and criminal."
Road conflict was exacerbated by the rise of sectarian violence after the official end of apartheid in 1990.
"This industry moves millions of people and brings a lot of prosperity to black communities," Shaw said. "In small towns, it is often the only source of resources for blacks. But there is violence in the DNA of the industry. "
Of all the murders in South Africa between 2000 and 2017, 43% were related to the taxi industry, according to Assassination Witness, a Shaw database and other researchers.
"There has been a significant improvement since 2011," Shaw said, adding that since then, taxi-related hits have "always been about half of the annual total." The lingering conflict is an overabundance of "big money". taxi operators, according to experts, with insufficient oversight of the government.
Saturday's attack took place in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, which the database identifies as a national "hot spot". But violence spreads across the country.In May, 10 taxi drivers were killed in a single weekend in Cape Town.
Drivers killed Saturday belonged to the Ivory Park Taxi Association, based in the Midrand region of Johannesburg Another taxi owner of the association was murdered in May after the assassination of another member in 2016. The association could not be contacted.
The Police Commissioner of South Africa announced a 72-hour action plan. several specialized units, to investigate the attack. No arrest was made Sunday night.
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