EDWARD Mazondo wakes up at 5am every morning to leave Sebokeng in the Vaal Triangle to travel to Johannesburg, where he works as a security guard at the Carlton Centre.
He works a 12-hour shift on a daily basis to guard the dilapidated, once renowned “Top of Africa” building, earning R4000 a month.
However, this week after having been dropped off at Noord Street taxi rank in Johannesburg by a taxi that travelled almost two hours from his Vaal rented room, violence ensued.
Mazondo, 38, a father of three, was shot in the back of his right shoulder and woke up at Helen Joseph Hospital the next day.
There had been a squabble between taxi associations and alleged criminals around the taxi rank.
Speaking to the Saturday Star from the hospital, Mazondo said his concerns around the violence were not being addressed by the government, adding that there were more guns around taxi ranks than in the police service.
“There are too many guns in this country … at the taxi rank there are more. I’m worried that they shot me, but I had been waiting for it,” Mazondo said.
“I work everyday for my children and have to go this far to be shot at because people are trying to rob others,” he said.
Mazondo had no intention to sue the government but pleaded that it looked into how South African taxi ranks would work on resolving crime.
“There is always crime around the ranks and nobody does anything. They must fix it. They have to work on it.”
The SABC reported this week that taxi commuters feared for their lives when using public transport in Johannesburg after a rise in crime.
It was reported that the the Alexandra Taxi Association (ATA) together with the Alexandra, Randburg, Midrand and Sandton Taxi Association (ARMSTA), the JMPD and the SAPS conducted a crime prevention and patrol operation at the MTN taxi rank in the Johannesburg CBD in an effort to rid the city’s taxi ranks of crime.
One of the commuters told the SABC: “Especially women, we are not safe. Sometimes, if you want to go somewhere, you must go before 6. You get mugged.They can remove your hair, the wigs. I’m very scared for my life.”
Another one added, “I don’t feel safe at the rank. I fear for my phone, my money. I always have to put my phone on silent. Someone can snatch my handbag, my groceries. I just don’t feel safe. I know people have been stabbed and attacked.”
A taxi owner, Jabulani Ntshangase, told the public broadcaster that the city’s ranks had no protection.
“Taxi ranks across the city of Johannesburg are in need of a high police presence because passengers are often targeted by criminals in their ranks,” Ntshangase said.
“The crime is left and right, honestly. Other things, we don’t have any such life from the police station there. There’s no police about anything that’s happening. Because they are selling drugs and lots of alcohol. Other problems there are the robberies are left and right.”
Saturday Star