e-Hailing drivers in the South African city of Cape Town have condemned the unresponsiveness of the Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile, to crimes carried out against their colleagues. The condemnation was contained in a statement sent to Technext and signed by the Secretary of the Western Cape e-Hailing Association (WCEA), Omar Parker.
Narrating what it described as selective policing and a blatant disregard for the lives of e-hailing operators, the statement noted that the Provincial Police Commissioner offered a swift and high-level response when a vehicle conveying Members of Parliament was attacked in a smash-and-grab incident in the violence-prone area of Philippi.
See also: Outrage as e-hailing driver is burnt alive by minibus operators in South Africa’s Maponya Mall
It noted that within hours of the attack on the MPs’ vehicle, the Provincial Commissioner made public statements and directed significant resources toward the case. However, during violent attacks against e-hailing drivers and, indeed, other ordinary working-class drivers, the response
“This speed of action and attention proves that the South African Police Service (SAPS) in this province is capable of rapid and effective responses—when it involves privileged upper-class DA MP members. Yet, when it comes to the daily violence, hijackings, stabbings, robberies, and murders of ordinary working-class e-hailing operators and drivers, the very backbone of urban mobility, tourism, and township economies, the Commissioner is silent, absent, and unresponsive,” the statement reads.
Cape Town drivers brutally targeted by criminals
This is coming just days after an e-hailing driver was shot point-blank in the head in the Mitchells Plain area of Cape Town during the course of his duties. He reportedly died on the spot. In a separate incident, another driver had his vehicle hijacked on the 5th of August near Eastwood. Before that, another driver had been brutally attacked in Philipi on June 11, an attack which left him with serious injuries to his head.
“Where was the Provincial Commissioner then? Where was the swift response? Where was the urgency?” the WCEA statement asked.
The WCEA asserted that the incidents of violence are not isolated; rather, they are systemic and ongoing. It asserted that its Safety Unit, alongside Moove and EasyWay, has documented hundreds of cases. This includes hard statistics and even video footage of hotspot crime scenes across the city.
“Yet the same urgency shown in Philippi is nowhere to be found when it comes to us—the drivers and operators who face these atrocities every single day. This selective policing exposes a disturbing truth: our lives are not valued equally. The safety of e-hailing drivers, the majority of whom are underprivileged workers, is treated as expendable, while the full force of the state is mobilised when political elites and the privileged are affected,” the WCEA said.
As such, the association is demanding that the Cape Town Provincial Commissioner publicly account for the lack of urgency in responding to crimes against e-hailing operators. It is also demanding that the Commissioner commit to prioritising the rampant violence against e-hailing drivers with the same energy and resources shown in the Philippi attack.
Furthermore, the association says it is open to collaboration with the Commissioner in order to act swiftly against known crime hotspots, using the very evidence we have already compiled. It also challenged the Commissioner to successfully apprehend all the perpetrators caught on footage of drivers within a turnaround period of 7 days and publicly announce these arrests.
“The selective prioritisation of privileged upper-class DA members over ordinary working-class citizens is not only discriminatory—it is dangerous. If the Commissioner can personally go to the scene and mobilise resources and track perpetrators within 24 hours for one group, then there is absolutely no excuse for the chronic neglect of e-hailing operators’ safety. We refuse to remain silent while our members continue to be stabbed, hijacked, and murdered with impunity,” the association said.
e-Hailing drivers in South Africa have continued to operate in environments that are continuously proving hostile for them. While the spate of insecurity has generally risen in the country, e-hailers appear to be more preferred targets, not just for criminals, but also for other transporters.
Just last week, one e-hailing driver was shot at and set ablaze, reportedly by minibus operators. The dastardly act, which took place outside the Maponya Mall in Soweto, South Africa, is the latest act of violence in the rivalry between minibus operators and e-hailing drivers tussling for turf in the Soweto district