Minibus Taxi Graveyard: Goodbye, Baby Girl

by Jordan Yerman | July 4, 2007 at 01:34 pm

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The landscape is changing for minibus taxis, those overcrowded, sound-system-blasting, brake-fluid-deficient bastions of South African transit.

The government has incentivised the removal of minibuses over ten years old in a bid to boost safety of such vehicles, and owners are queuing up to take advantage of the scheme. I've yet to research the additional costs of kitting out a used Toyota minivan with street glow, a bangin' sound system and a custom paint job.

There have been 1 600 applications for taxis in Gauteng to head for the minibus graveyard in line with the second phase of the taxi-recapitalisation programme (TRP) in the province.

The provincial transport department said on Wednesday that 75 old taxis had been scrapped since the end of March and a further 122 had been prepared for scrapping.

"The second phase of the TRP involves the scrapping of the old taxi vehicles [OTVs] that are older than 10 years," spokesperson Alfred Nhlapo explained. "The operators of these 'scrapped' OTVs will receive a one-off compensation payment of R50 000."

The last minibus taxi I rode in was called Baby Girl, which ran through Green Point into the City Bowl in Cape Town: fourteen passengers, slamming kwaito beats, and the smell of transmission fluid.

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