DISSATISFACTION over the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system was the main reason behind the crippling taxi strikes which took place in Nelson Mandela Bay and Gauteng on Monday, the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) said yesterday.

“The strikes are about the BRT. The current model of the BRT loses sight of the fact that the taxi sector is the major economic player in the transport industry. In its outline there is absence of economic empowerment of the taxi industry,” Santaco spokesman Thabisho Molelekwa said.

In the Bay, BRT has been renamed as the Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS), in a bid to accommodate taxi operators.

Bay Taxi Forum spokesman Mthuthuzeli Madwara echoed Santaco’s sentiments saying there were many issues causing dissatisfaction with the IPTS process, apart from the arrest of their leader Melekile Hani last week.

Molelekwa said the on-going talks between the Bay and Johannesburg municipalities and the respective taxi operators were not achieving any success in realising the interests of taxi operators “for a greater stake in the economy”.

The taxi body is scheduled to have a press conference in Johannesburg today to raise concerns over BRT and how it proposes government should carry the process forward.

Much of the growing fear surrounding BRT, Molelekwa said, was the result of the “disastrous” taxi re-capitalisation project which ”drove many in the industry out of business”.

Another concern was the agreement reached with President Jacob Zuma last year for regular consultation “at the municipal level”.

“Negotiations on BRT are being conducted in bad faith,” he said.

Bay Mayor Zanoxolo Wayile was upbeat yesterday that an IPTS memorandum of understanding between the city and the Taxi Forum, as well as the Algoa Bus Company, was on the verge of being finalised.