Gauteng Transport Dept wants to merge rival Soweto taxi associations WATA & NANDUWE

JOHANNESBURG - The Gauteng Transport Department wants to merge Soweto’s two rival taxi associations to end years of deadly violence.

The Nancefield Dube West Taxi Association (NANDUWE) and Witwatersrand African Taxi Association (WATA) have been locked in a decade-long dispute over routes.

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There's been a recent escalation that this week saw the killing of three marshals from WATA who were shot in Mofolo.

MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela said government is ready to close taxi ranks and cancel licences if the killings continue.

"Dissolve them and start everything afresh. Make sure that whoever participates in the association is a taxi operator, is a taxi owner – it's not anyone else – and a taxi operator in Gauteng that stays in this part of Gauteng, not a person that is not residing here and wanting to run business here."