AZIKWELWA! (We Will Not Ride!)

Abstract

This presentation will give an analysis of the present situation in the South African taxi industry. This kind of semi-public and not-yet-industrialized transportation system also exists in other countries where infrastructures and public services are underdeveloped, but in South Africa, it has long been part of the struggles during the apartheid era. It used to be both a distinctive feature of the urban segregation and a weapon for all kinds of boycott campaigns. What has become of this system, ten years after the end of the official apartheid regime? The paper will first present the social, historical and political origin of this means of transport because minibus taxis cannot be understood without thinking of the large scale expropriation of the black population and the creation of black reserves for cheap labor around the cities. South African taxis and township life are entirely inseparable in the country. Using the example of a few boycotts in the apartheid era, we will then assess the needs and hopes of the population as regards to this question of transport. That will also help see if there were any changes since 1994: if there were none in the huge territorial segregation still prevailing in the country, there have been attempts to some restructuring of this informal sector of the economy. And that will bring us to a conclusion on what the present government is doing under the policy of recapitalization and Black Economic Empowerment.