Fight for your taxi rights
JOHANNESBURG – Sandton Chronicle journalist shares her taxi lesson for the day.
My Taxi Chronicles: Fight for your taxi right
The first few weeks of my travelling from Randburg to MTN Taxi Rank were difficult because the taxis changed routes all the time.
It was so annoying because I couldn’t memorise all the routes at once, so I constantly had to ask the passengers if the taxi was indeed going to the MTN Taxi Rank.
So far, I have managed to learn about five routes but I discovered another one yesterday. As usual, I panicked but did not want to ask because the passenger that was sitting next to me didn’t seem too friendly. I noticed this when I greeted him and he didn’t respond. There could be a number of reasons why but I can think of three: One, he probably couldn’t understand my language, two, he was in a really bad mood or three, he is not a ‘greeting person’. Whatever the reason, he didn’t greet me back and that was enough for me to not even try to converse with him.
However, someone who was not shy to reveal their nervousness was a man sitting in the back seat. I couldn’t see his face but he had a deep voice. He confronted the driver by asking him where he was going and why he was using a route that he did not know. The driver politely explained that it was due to traffic but the man was not having it. He demanded that the driver took him to SPAR, so he would not get lost. The rest of the passengers were quick to attack the man because they were closer to reaching their destination. The man, however, was not interested, he just wanted to get to his destination and that was it.
The taxi driver must’ve realised that the man would not give up so he changed his route and the eager passenger got to his destination. The other passengers made funny comments after he got off but the bottom line was that he got off where he wanted to and what he did not hear, would not hurt him.
I must say, I commend him for actually standing up for himself. I have had experiences where I had to get off in areas that I was not familiar with simply because I was afraid to voice my concerns. This is something I will definitely keep in mind for all my taxi rides.
Related article:
https://staging.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/222218/taxi-chronicles-home-away-home/
