WATCH: Two protesters thrown from taxi during Cape taxi strike
Cape Town – The joint march between Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) turned violent on Thursday morning.
And two alleged protesters in a taxi that had its sliding door open were thrown from the vehicle after a dangerous U-turn was made in front of Cape traffic officers.
A Capetonian filmed the moment two taxi protesters were thrown from the vehicle while the door was open at the corner of Christian Barnard Street and Hertzog Boulevard.
IOL was informed by the author that the incident took place at roughly 12.40pm.
The taxi can be seen coming down the bridge adjacent to the Cape Town taxi rank, towards the intersection, and then proceed with a sharp U-turn at speed back on to the bridge.
It was at this moment that the two alleged protesters were thrown from the vehicle.
Cape Town traffic officers at the scene witnessed the incident as they were engaged in redirecting traffic because of the mass protest.
The driver of the taxi immediately jumped out of the vehicle to assist the two fallen alleged protesters, while traffic officers looked on before the 30-second video ended.
Commentators on Facebook cannot believe authorities did not assist the two injured.
“Amazing how fast our cops went to assist. First-class mampoompaans,” a comment on the video reads.
“This is not funny. The police could not be less interested,” said another.
“People who have first aid training are just blomming there. We then pay them to serve and protect,” another added.
IOL reached out to Traffic Service spokesperson Maxine Bezuidenhout to ascertain if the two fallen alleged protesters were treated, the extent of their injuries and whether traffic officers assisted the two. However, multiple calls went unanswered.
The planned and approved protest turned violent with infrastructure damaged, leaving public transport commuters stranded and motorists gridlocked.
Cape Town Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said in a recent post to social media that the City deployed all possible resources to keep citizens safe.
The march to hand over Codeta and Cata’s memorandum of grievances to Western Cape Premier Alan Winde in part includes their unhappiness over taxis being impounded.
“The demand from Cata and Codeta that their vehicles should not be impounded underscores the fact that the City of Cape Town is doing its job and enforcing the law by preventing rogue and pirate taxis from intruding into routes where their presence causes taxi violence,” Smith said.
IOL