VIDEO | Parolee forces taxis to pay protection fee

A convicted criminal on parole has been accused of extorting taxi drivers in Bronkhortspruit near Pretoria and making them pay R30 for every load of passengers they pick up at the taxi rank.

The taxi drivers, who are members of the Greater Bronkhorstspruit Taxi Association, say Mphekeledi Mantsoe has been terrorising them since his release from Zonderwater Correctional Services two months ago. The association has 300 taxis and 126 members.

Sowetan last week visited the rank and witnessed two men collecting R30 from two taxi drivers who seemed reluctant to hand the money over. Mantsoe, who always walks around with armed security, is said to be working with runners who collect the money on his behalf.

They claim Mantsoe collects roughly R25,000 from them daily, but Mantsoe has denied the extortion allegations.

The Greater Bronkhorstspruit Taxi Association said on October 8 Montsoe had arrived at the taxi rank in a helicopter accompanied by his guards and also escorted by police vans.

“He sat us down and said each taxi owner would pay R20 weekly from our R100 membership fees towards the hiring of patrollers who would protect and assist taxis on the road.

We agreed, but just a few days after that announcement he sent someone to say that he is going to take an additional R30 from us as a protection fee,” said one of the association leaders, who did not want to be identified for safety reasons.

He said the association did not understand what the extra R30 was for because they thought the protection fee was covered in the initial R20 they had agreed to.

A taxi driver, whom Sowetan watched as two men grabbed money from his hand at Bronkhortspruit taxi rank, said he had no other option but to pay the money.

“I’ve been working as a driver for about seven years at this rank, and we’ve never had to make any sort of payment for protection fees,” he said.

“We don’t need protection because we’re not violent and there is no taxi violence here. We don’t question why the money is taken because the person collecting it is very dangerous and has eyes everywhere in the ranks. I’ve never really seen him, but I just follow orders.”

The association said the matter had been reported not only to the National Taxi Alliance [NTA] but also to the police. NTA president Adam Mahlangu said they were aware of the matter.

A member of the National Intervention Unit, a tactical unit of the police that responds to high-risk incidents, said they had received three complaints and were collecting information from the association before handing it to an investigating officer.

However, Mantsoe said the collecting of money was not extortion but an agreed plan. He said the taxi association was defaming him and that its members should open a criminal case against him or report him to the department of correctional services (DCS).

He said he had bought a vehicle to assist in patrols, which he was paying off with the R30, which also goes to paying the 10 patrollers he has hired.

“What I am doing is not extortion,” Mantsoe told Sowetan.

“This was agreed at a mass meeting, and even the SAPS was there. This is defamation of character. I am a parolee, so they should open a case against me if they believe I am extorting them.

They should also approach correctional services and tell them that I am an extortionist and that I am not rehabilitated, but they have not even opened a case.”

He said he will continue to collect the money from the association.

Regarding his arrival in a helicopter to meet the taxi owners last month, Mantsoe said he had done so for safety reasons.

“I used a chopper because I heard that they [taxi operators] would close all the roads to prevent me from going there. I landed close to the rank so that they don’t shoot me. There were about 100 people at that mass meeting,” said Mantsoe.

Police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said the police had only been at that meeting because they had received a tip-off about heavy gun machinery being in the area.

“The person [Mantsoe] was escorted by his private security and not the police,” Nevhuhulwi said.

“The SAPS and Tshwane Metro Police Department members were deployed there to maintain law and order and monitor the meeting proceedings between the association after information was received that some attendees would be heavily armed.”

Mantsoe was sentenced more than a decade ago for a robbery and rape committed in the Free State in 2006 when he was 20 years old. He was sentenced to 18 years.

According to DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo, Mantsoe appeared before the parole board in August this year and was placed on parole on September 4.

Sowetan