​Lerato Mailoane
Gauteng government alongside the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) and the National Taxi Alliance (NTA), are this week piloting safety measures against COVID-19 in 871 taxi ranks across Gauteng.
The inspections started at the Bara Taxi Rank in Soweto on Monday morning. The inspection is today in Pretoria at Mabopane Taxi Rank and will visit all regions throughout the month.
MEC for Roads and Transport, Jacob Mamabolo said they were conducting a pilot study, trying to introduce measures to fight COVID-19 by protecting our passengers in various taxi ranks.
"We have seen an increase in population since the introduction of stage 4 of the lockdown at taxi ranks in the province, so we need to step up our safety measure to take effective control and protecting our passengers.
"Amongst the measures that we have introduced is marking the surfaces on the ground for social distancing,  we have introduced this at Baragwanath taxi rank. We are also trying to check the technological systems to support the sanitisation booth technology in a taxi environment," he said.
Mamabolo said a decision was taken to procure disinfectant booths due to the fact that more people need to be transported under Level 4 of the lockdown.
These booths will now be used at taxi ranks, this is the same technology used on the Gautrain as it also checks people's body temperature.
He said the effective control of people at taxi ranks was very difficult as there were no proper entrances and exits.
"We can clearly see that if we don't introduce proper controls in the taxi rank to manage the public traffic, installing the booths will be difficult. The management at all taxi ranks will enforce all the measures we are introducing.
"We will also enforce the sanitation of all passengers at taxi ranks. We will also be strengthening the disinfection of all vehicles at all taxi ranks across the province," said Mamabolo.
The MEC said taxi managers would be appointed at all taxi ranks to enforce the regulations.
"We have put up teams. We have taxi management that is running with the teams, so we are sure the taxi industry is geared up and ready for any challenges," he said.
He added that the booths would run until the end of May, after which the department would decide whether or not the method was effective.