Minibus taxi drivers are they all 'children born from the same mother?'
Date
2008-10-22T07:16:50Z
Authors
Sauti, Gloria
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Abstract
The minibus taxi industry in South Africa is the most popular form of public transportation and is used by the majority of commuters. At least 65 percent of the country’s commuters make use of this mode of public transport while the rest travel by busses or trains. Although minibus taxis are the most convenient form of transportation the industry is however associated with various complaints from commuters, the media and society at large. Most of the complaints are about “violence or taxi wars”, “unsafe taxis” resulting in high accident rates and the manner in which minibus taxi drivers appear to drive, behave, over speed and overload taxis etc. All these complaints are directly related to minibus taxi drivers. The purpose of my research is to investigate whether or not all minibus taxi drivers are indeed behaving in these similar ways and whether it can hence be argued that they are all “children born from the same mother?” In the field, it was important to go beyond the stereotypes of South African minibus taxi drivers. My study focussed specifically on minibus taxi drivers in the Johannesburg – Randfontein route, which is about a forty five minute drive each way.
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Keywords
taxi drivers, South Africa, minibus taxis, public transportation, minibus taxi drivers, Johannesburg, Randfontein