Crime  ·  Featured Stories  ·  Gauteng

William Nicol Taxi Violence Leads to Murder


By Chelsea-Summer Lodewyk    26-Feb-2015 14:36 UTC+02:00
Picture - SABC

Picture – SABC

Taxi violence has moved down William Nicol Drive from Hyde Park to Bryanston.

The trouble started this morning on William Nicol Drive and Ballyclare Drive close to the Bryanston Shopping Centre and the Bryanston High School.

According to a taxi driver who would like to remain anonymous, the taxi drivers are fighting for taxi routes in Bryanston.

On Wednesday, a taxi driver in Hyde park was allegedly beaten by other drivers with knobkerries and then dragged to his death during a fall out with a taxi driver from a competing taxi association.

So far, the violence has left one man dead and another seriously injured.

Several eyewitnesses have come forward saying that a taxi drove into the man and dragged him for nearly a kilometre, before leaving him for dead.

It is alleged that the other man was beaten up at a nearby petrol station and was taken away by an ambulance.

A case of culpable homicide is now being investigated.

Johannesburg metro police spokeswoman, Edna Mamonyane says that the incident is related to Wednesday’s taxi violence at Hyde Park corner.

In a radio interview on 702 Mamonyane said “At this stage, we’re having a lot of issues with taxis – even in the Booysens area in the Soweto motorway – because Rea Vaya is not working right now, they want to take over the Rea Vaya lanes and we can’t allow that.”

According to an EWN report “An employee affiliated with the Alexandra Taxi Association says drivers from Diepsloot recently changed their routes, collecting customers from outside the Bryanston Shopping Centre.” This has apparently resulted in a turf war in the area.

The situation has since been defused by police with no incidents of violence being reported. Calm has been restored to the Bryanston area.

 

 


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