Latest / Drive with John Perlman / Delays at Cape Town Airport due to a municipal taxi strike.

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Delays at Cape Town Airport due to a municipal taxi strike. · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Terrible, terrible times for people who use taxis down in
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the Western Cape, in Cape Town, in a particular war
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: between rival associations, Carta and Codetta, I think is the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: name of those two. I'll get corrected in a moment
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: if I've got that wrong. And that has had a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: real problem for people who use the taxis. But the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: consequences are spreading beyond that particular form of commuting. And
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the airport at Cape Town is now substantially affected. It
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: seems that people who work there have been unable to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: get to work. So that's one of the consequences. And
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: then people wanting to either get to the planes or
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: get from the planes, having landed in Cape Town to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: wherever they're going next, are affected by this violence as well.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Let's get a comprehensive picture and the latest news. And
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: welcome to the show, Tutu Zelonene, who is our EWN.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Colleague.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Down in Cape Town. Tutu Zelo, very good afternoon to you.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Let's start with the airports first. Is the main cause
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: of the disruption people who couldn't make it to work?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon to you.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Well, good afternoon, John. The latest update from the airport
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: is that operations have now stabilized following hours of disruption
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: caused by severe staff shortages. linked to the ongoing deadly
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: taxi violence. The good news, though, for travelers, John, is
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: that normal airport operations have now resumed and all the
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: snaking queues that had built up at both the domestic
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: and international departures have now been cleared.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that's good news indeed. Invariably, though, when there's
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: disruption and delays in Tutuzelo, there are kind of knock-on effects.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Are you saying that everything is kind of pretty much
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: back on time as it should be?
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Earlier today, the shortage of staff placed enormous pressure on us.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the security screening operation, particularly at the domestic departures where
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: passengers were left facing lengthy queues. The disruption was largely
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: attributed to the transport challenges with the reports indicating that
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: almost half of the airport staff were unable to make
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: it to work because of a lack of transport in
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: certain areas amid this ongoing taxi violence. And the impact
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: was really significant. You know, by one o'clock this afternoon,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: the airport had recorded a total of 60 flight delays.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Of those, 44 were domestic departures, 11 were international departures,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: while five were arrivals, yes.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: And Tutuzelo, the actual root issue, this clash between the
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: two taxi associations, the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association, CARTA and
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the Cape Organization for the Democratic Taxi Association, CADETA. What's
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the latest on that? Is it still as tense and
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: as difficult and as conflictual as it was? Or is
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: there any progress being made at all?
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: There was a meeting that set yesterday between provincial government
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: officials as well as the city, together with Santarco and Coderta.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: The other rival tax association involved in this, which is CARTA,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: did not make it to the meeting citing prior commitments
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: outside of the province. So another meeting is scheduled for Monday.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: But generally, you can feel the tension, you know, in
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: and around these other areas that were affected by the
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: deadly violence, the bloodshed, places like Inyanga, Delft. Fuleni, you know,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: earlier this morning at the Nyanga taxi rank, taxis were
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: not operating while I was leaving the airport as well.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: There were people who were, you know, workers who work
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: at the airport who were saying there are no taxis
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: to transport them from work back to their homes. So,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: you know, there's that, there's delays in, you know, in
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: how taxis are operating. And also there's tension there. But
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: we will only definitely find out what the situation is
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: in terms of a solution on Monday after that meeting.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: And just finally, in terms of these talks that will
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: take place on Monday, does that mean that foreseeably until
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the talks bear fruit, Cape Town could well be faced
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: with something similar for possibly the whole of next week?
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Um, it is possible, uh, but we can't say for sure. Um,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: you know, um, yesterday there were, you know, a taxi
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: services that were withdrawn, um, for most part of, of
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Cape town, but you know, Texas association cadet had decided
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: that each Texas will go back to work. Um, so
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: some of the affected areas where there's, you know, a
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: limited number of Texas or no Texas at all. Um, I, I, I,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: taxi ranks which I mean the Tax Association Qatar is
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: operating in. So we're not sure whether or not how
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: significant of an impact this will have come next week
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: when people need to be going to work and also
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: going to vote as well.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Of course I forgot that element. Crucial,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: crucial day next Wednesday where people not only need to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: go and cast their votes but People working in voting
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: stations need to get there promptly if they can, but
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: crucially and above all, safely as well. Let's hope they
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: make some progress. Yeah, and I mean, the explanation offered
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: for the one taxi association which has, with Cape in
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: its name, unable to attend the talks because they had
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: commitments outside of the province. Okay, well, we'll see. We'll
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: see what happens there.