Cab Drivers Strike Leaves 5 Dead in South Africa

The strike of South African cab drivers has been going on for more than a week and so far with a balance of 5 people dead. With the passing of the days the protests have become more violent, especially in the scenarios of Cape Town where police repression has intensified.

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Among the dead are three protesters, a policeman and a foreigner, the latter a 40-year-old British citizen. The death of the British citizen is being followed up by the UK Foreign Office, which has advised its citizens not to travel to South Africa for the duration of the protests.

This conflict between the cab drivers' union and the government is part of the annoyance generated in the transportation sector by the application of new measures to regulate vehicle traffic in the country. The protesters have called these measures "strong-arm tactics" by the local authorities, after the application of numerous confiscations of vehicles for bad safety practices "including not wearing seat belts or driving in the emergency lane".

Cab drivers complain that these measures do not apply to all drivers and that, as a result, many of them will only face fines if they violate the regulations.

On Tuesday, South African Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga ordered the immediate release of the cabs and minibuses seized by the Cape Town City Council and declared that the legislation had been "wrongly executed and applied", according to media reports.

Police have indicated that 120 people have so far been arrested during the unrest and warned that looting, burning and stone throwing have taken place.

On Tuesday, residents of Masiphumelele township erected barricades, preventing other residents from leaving. Many of those barricades were subsequently set on fire.

South African Transport Minister Lydia Sindisiwe Chikunga condemned the violence and illegal acts associated with the cab drivers' strike in Cape Town, in the southern Western Cape.

During the strikes, cars have been set on fire and numerous shootings have been reported. Urban transport has been affected, not only by the striking drivers who have withdrawn their vehicles from service, but also by other means of public transport, such as buses, which have been attacked in the middle of the service, as they have been identified as strikebreakers.

The minister has led the negotiating tables between the leaders of the Provincial Government, the City of Cape Town itself and the cab industry to address the legality of the cab seizures that have taken place in the city.