Coming up on
Special Assignment this week:
Episode title: Short changed
Broadcast date: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Teaser ...
In 2007, 65 year-old Mandlenkosi Nicholas Sangweni, a long time taxi operator entered a car dealership in Johannesburg. Other taxi operators had just shown off their newly acquired 14-seater Toyota Quantum Ses’fikile minibus and he could not be left behind.
A salesman at the car dealership convinced him there was a new Ses’fikile which could carry up to 17 passengers. Although it cost R20 000 more than the 14 seater, he bought it on the grounds that the extra seats would bring in more revenue.
What Mr. Sangweni had not been told was that his new taxi was an illegally converted panel van, not allowed on South African roads.
Two years later, Mr. Sangweni and his two sisters lay dead on the N3 highway following a horrific accident as he tried to avoid a truck on his way to attend his younger sister’s wedding in Newcastle. The sister, Khanyisile Xaba and her children were fortunate to survive the accident.
Was this a result of an unsafe, unstable and illegally converted vehicle?
This week’s Special Assignment exposes fraudulent and corrupt activities involved in the selling and purchasing of illegally converted panel vans.
The Taxi Recapitalisation Programme which had been first announced in 1999 as a programme that would result in improved minibus taxi safety specifications and improved law enforcement had been meant to replace an estimated 80% of the national minibus taxi fleet which did not meet the new requirements.
As part of this requirement, in 2005 Toyota introduced a new minibus taxi, also known as the Quantum Ses’fikile. The new addition fully complied with the requirements of the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme and was lauded for offering high levels of safety and comfort, as well as better operating efficiencies for taxi owners. However, some saw a commercial opportunity by changing the original specifications.
As early as 2006, hundreds of the illegally converted panels were already being sold to unsuspecting taxi owners at twice the price. The motive behind this was that the retro fitted panel could carry more passengers compared to the Ses’fikile minibus. What taxi owners did not know was that the retro fitment made this new ‘taxi’ unstable and structurally unsound.
The investigation raises questions about the extent to which the many taxi accidents and deaths on our roads could be attributed to these illegal conversions and if indeed it is the case, who should be held liable for the consequences.
Short Changed is produced by Peter Moyo.
Special Assignment is on SABC3 on Thursdays at 21h00.