One hundred days after the inception of Operation Nomakanjani, a crackdown on reckless driving in Johannesburg, the metro police have been ordered to show taxi drivers more “respect”.
The Johannesburg metro police and members of the taxi industry met yesterday after taxi drivers complained that they were being unfairly targeted by the police.
Acting metro police chief David Tembe said: “We admit that the handling of drivers has been harsh at times, and I promise to engage with my officers in order to make them aware that they need to be respectful in the way they engage with drivers.”
One driver told Tembe: “We aren’t calling for the operation to be halted or shut down. However, we feel we must alert the [metro police] that we are mistreated by police officers and we are being unfairly fined and arrested.”
Of the 2004 motorists arrested in Operation Nomakanjani, 1300 were taxi drivers .
Yesterday’s meeting ended with an agreement that a monthly meeting between police and taxi drivers and bosses would be held.
[Story by Andile Ndlovu appeared in The Times]
That’s quite a story. But many of “us” have been saying similar for a long time.
It’s one thing to do your job, but another to be cruel. Metro are always very unpleasant to deal with, and never show any respect to the LAW ABIDING CITIZENS that they deal with.
I hope this carries on as positively