Where is the university built by the Taxi Industry?

IOL News

26-05-2025

There are approximately 150 000 to 283 000 minibus taxis on the road in South Africa daily, depending on whose research one uses, says the writer.
Image: Armand Hough/Independent Newspapers
Why has the South African minibus taxi industry not built a school or university for South Africans yet? The Road Transportation Act of 1977 opened public transport provision to previously excluded groups, bringing black operators into the mainstream of the public transport industry. The Transport Deregulation Act of 1988 saw the minibus taxi become the dominant form of public transport for especially the poor, leading to its continued growth and complete dominance.
There are approximately 150 000 to 283 000 minibus taxis on the road in South Africa daily, depending on whose research one uses. These vehicles are owned by about 20,000 owners and they are variously affiliated to about 950 regional operating bodies, all of which fall under either the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) or the National Taxi Alliance (NTA).
According to SANTACO's documents, the industry employs about 600 000 people and is the main transport provider for 16 million people daily. Its annual turnover is between R35 billion at the low end, R50 billion in the mid-range, and R90 billion in the upper range. Again, figures vary based on who one speaks to.
The industry is poorly supported by government. Its relationship with the State has been conflictual for most of its existence. The 2023 Western Cape taxi strike was among the worst in recent years. Struck by both Covid and the strike, the industry bled money. It has a complex business model, where all three principal agents, the owner, driver and sliding door operator, are essentially entrepreneurs. At the end of the transport line, their business acumen determines how much money each of them and their various associations make annually.
A minibus taxi transports, on average, twelve people per trip and makes about eight trips per day. At an average cost of about R12 per passenger, the daily income is about R1152 per taxi per day. That's about R230 million per day for this sector. If it operates for 264 days per year, it generates about R61 billion in annual revenue. Paying staff and maintaining vehicles are all extremely expensive. But the question remains: what has it given back to its 16 million loyal commuters? Its "Back-to-School" campaign, supplying school supplies, is very commendable. But where are the schools they built? Where are the infrastructure projects they launched or the bursaries they provide?
In 2021, Trade Union Solidarity built a technical university for R300 million. Why have the two national taxi associations not invested their profits into better benefits for their passengers? If each of the 200 000 taxis on the road took only one of its eight daily trips and gave that fare of R144 once a week into a national Taxi Industry Community Empowerment Fund, that would net R29 million every week. If they did this for forty weeks a year, they would have an empowerment fund with an annual capital contribution of R1.1 billion each year. Think of how that could change the face of empowerment interventions in South Africa.
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. Lorenzo Davids is the Executive Director of Urban Issues Consulting.
Image: Supplied
But its business model is rooted in a mindset that does not empower the collective ecosystem. Owners take the lion's share and become rich, while the other agents in the ecosystem eke out a miserly existence. With a better economic model, the minibus taxi industry could rise to become the empowerment bastion of the South African economy.
But as long as its mindset is on eating today and not investing in the future, the industry will never reach the potential it has. Perhaps it is also so by design that others in power do not want them to fully grasp the economic muscle they hold, for it will dramatically change the economic power models in South Africa.
A university built by the taxi industry would then be small change. Its time the industry woke up. An entire country changed by its new financial model would be a game changer in our economy.
Cape Argus