After the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) announced a seven-day statewide shutdown last Thursday, the minibus taxi strike in Cape Town has continued with violence, road closures, and damage to public and private cars as it approaches its fifth day.

The Western Cape premier’s office said on Monday that while the strike was their constitutional right, “violence, intimidation and destruction of property are not.”

“I am angry that as a result of the strike, residents have been unable to get home to their families or to work, school, shops, clinics and other critical sites. Many government services, including health and social development, are having to close facilities and are unable to provide desperately needed services to our communities. Our schooling system is also being affected. This is not acceptable,” Premier Alan Winde said in a press statement.  

He said 287,420 students could not attend class due to the strike. Health and emergency services are also under more stress.

But Santaco denied rumours that road closure was lifted after talks with the regional authorities. Instead, the taxi council said in a statement on Sunday that it was “with great disappointment” that “talks between the government and the Santaco leadership that took place in an attempt to resolve the cause for the taxi stay away was suspended.” 

The court ordered Santaco and its eight associated associations to stop intimidating, harassing, threatening, and interfering with the business affairs of Golden Arrow Bus Services, its workers, and customers.

According to the spokesman for bus services, Bronwen Dyke-Beyer, ten Golden Arrow buses have been set on fire since Thursday.   

Reports said when a city depot in Delft was petrol-bombed on Saturday night, seven City of Cape Town cars were set on fire. In Makhaza, three municipal automobiles were burnt. 

Another incident occurred on Friday night when the marked city car the cops were driving caught fire. The officer was shot dead. According to preliminary reports and video of the vehicle, there were ten bullets in the car’s exterior. 

“This callous attack must be condemned in the strongest terms, and we will not rest until those responsible are caught and brought to justice,” the mayoral committee member for community safety, JP Smith, said. 

The city announced a R250 000 reward for information that can lead to a breakthrough in the murder.

Daily Maverick reported that another person was fatally shot near Cape Town international airport when a driver opened fire on a group of people throwing stones at passing motorists. 

The outlet reported provincial police spokesperson Novela Potelwa as saying, “The reports from the scene indicate that a motorist travelling along Airport Approach at approximately 4:35 a.m. on Monday morning was pelted with stones. The driver of the vehicle responded by firing several shots. As a result, a yet-to-be-identified person was killed, another seriously wounded, and two others sustained not-so-serious injuries.”

Santaco said in a statement last week that the decision to strike had not been taken lightly, “but as an industry, we are left with no other option but to embark on this stay away due to the frivolous impoundment operations run by the government, which has had a negative impact on our operators and industry”. 

The taxi council and its associated groups have repeatedly denied being involved in the violence following the strike’s launch.