The 2021 Cape Town taxi conflict was a violent

turf war A turf war is a fight over territory or resources, or may refer to: Music * ''Turf Wars'', a 2007 album by the Canadian band Daggermouth * "Turf War", a song on the 2001 album ''Filmtracks 2000'' by American composer Bill Television * ''Turf Wa ...

between the

minibus taxi A minibus, microbus, minicoach, or commuter (in Zimbabwe) is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, th ...

operators Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) and Congress of Democratic Taxi Association (CODETA) over lucrative taxi routes in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, South Africa. The conflict was part of a long running series of conflicts that are part of the ongoing

taxi wars in South Africa The term taxi war refer to the turf wars fought between taxi associations and individual minibus taxi drivers in South Africa from the late 1980s onwards to the present. The multi-billion rand minibus taxi industry carries over 60% of South Af ...

. The conflict picked up in intensity in July 2021 over the B97 taxi route between Bellville and

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

. The spike in taxi violence resulted in thousands of people being unable to get to their jobs resulting in pay cuts, job losses and economic hardship. Western Cape Transport MEC Daylin Mitchell stated that 22 murders and 29 attempted murders resulting from taxi violence were recorded between the start of July and 16 July 2021. As of 23 July 2021 a total of 83 taxi conflict related deaths in the Western Cape were recorded since the start of 2021. A total of 24 people had died in the conflict in the month of July 2021. In response to the violence the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

provincial government temporarily closed the B97 taxi route for two months in an effort to prevent further violence.

South African National Defence Force The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) comprises the Military, armed forces of South Africa. The commander of the SANDF is appointed by the President of South Africa from one of the Military branch, armed services. They are in turn a ...

personnel were deployed alongside

South African Police Service The South African Police Service (SAPS) is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa. Its 1,154 police stations in South Africa are divided according to the provincial borders, and a Provincial Commissioner is appointed in eac ...

personnel to help secure affected transport routes. The July spike in violence coincided with large scale rioting in the provinces of

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

and

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

. On 2 August both CATA and CODETA met with national Transport Minister

Fikile Mbalula Fikile April Mbalula (born 1 April 1971 in the Free State) is a South African politician who is currently serving in the cabinet as Minister of Transport. He previously served as both Minister and Deputy Minister of Police and Minister of Sport ...

to mediate an end to the conflict after which Mbalula announced that a truce agreement had been reached. The agreement stipulated that should violence breakout again then all effected mini-bus taxi routes would be closed for a period to be determined by the Department of Transport.

References

{{Reflist 2021 murders in South Africa 2021 crimes in South Africa 2021 murders in Africa July 2021 crimes in Africa July 2021 events in South Africa Murder in South Africa Western Cape 2021 in South Africa