Taxi associations in Cape Town led by the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), in partnership with the Western Cape Department of Mobility, launched a peace ambassador project at the Bellville taxi rank on Monday. The peace ambassador project was one of the resolutions taken at the Taxi Peace Summit that was held in August.

Addressing the media earlier today, the Santaco spokesperson, Mandla Hermanus said that the peace ambassadors would act as the eyes and ears of the associations and be able to warn the province before violence erupts.

The ambassadors, according to Hermanus, are from the eight taxi regions of the province and were selected by the regions. “We asked each region to identify an individual that they trust, an individual that is committed to promoting peace. So we left it to the regions and they made their selection based on who they thought was suitable,” he said.

The 16 ambassadors will undergo a series of workshops which include conflict management and will be introduced to the taxi owners, drivers and broader public soon, according to Hermanus.

Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association’s (Cata) spokesperson, Nkululeko Sityebi told Elitsha that they welcome the introduction of peace ambassadors as a sign that the taxi business is growing. “It’s difficult to have peace overnight but we are hopeful that these are baby steps in ensuring that there is stability in the business,” he said.

“Sitting down and having discussions on how to end the violence in the industry is not difficult. What is difficult is for both sides to take a decision that would benefit all of us and be for peace,” he said.

Peace ambassador, Kaizer Madonela from Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta) called for all the associations to work together to achieve peace. “The slogan for this project is , ‘if you see something, say something’, so it means that as much as we will be working with law enforcement agencies, we also have a duty to protect those who come forward with information. We need to make sure that whistleblowers are protected. It is the law enforcement that will attend to the problem,” he said.

According to the City of Cape Town, there have been eight murders of taxi drivers linked to the Khayelitsha- Somerset West taxi route which has led to the suspension of the route by the provincial government.