Taxi drivers, a law onto themselves:

 

“Claremont! Mowbray! Kaap!(Cape Town), these are the shouts you will often hear if you are one of the thousands of Cape Townians who travel by taxi on these routes or any other taxi route in South Africa. The gaartjie (conductor) belts out the destination of the taxi, and if  they can squeeze in 1 more they will. Taxis in South Africa are 15 seater minibus vans or Toyota Quantum’s, most taxi drivers however overload their taxis by loading up to 18-20 people. Most taxis are privately owned and the owners employ drivers with strict instruction of how much they expect to collect for the day. Their expectation ranges between R1000 and R1500 per day – any amount above this, goes into the driver’s pocket. Taxis are also hired for private functions for which taxi drivers receive additional revenue. Drivers are responsible for petrol and are liable for any traffic fines which they may incur.

 You can have as many as 30 taxis operating on 1 route which is controlled by an area association each with its own rules and regulations. Because of the volume of taxis on our roads there is fierce competition for routes and passengers. In Cape Town you have Codetta (Congress for Democratic Taxi Associations) and Cata (Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association) to whom an area taxi associations affiliate to.  Area associations that operate under the banner of 1 of these associations are not allowed to operate on routes controlled by the other. With new developments lots of new routes are opening up and sometimes these 2 associations then become involved in a violent battle for these new routes. Some drivers will sleep or arrive in the middle of the night at their designated taxi rank so that they can be first in line when passengers start arriving at the rank in the morning. Each rank has a line controller which controls which taxi can load passengers first.

 Taxi drivers have a set fare they charge passengers and it is an amount they don’t deviate from. If you board without enough cash and did not negotiate for a “discount” upfront, the driver will insist on his money or let rip with a few choice words before allowing the passenger to continue with the journey. Some hardnosed drivers have been known to stop their taxi on the side of the road if their fare is short and would wait until their outstanding money is paid; this generally leads to arguments between the passengers as to who did not pay their fare. Most drivers have little or no respect for their passengers or the rules of the road and while drivers can receive fines and be suspended when a complaint is laid, this is not an industry norm as drivers form a tight unit. Taxi fares are normally only increased when there is an increase in the petrol price.

 The modus operandi of the drivers seem to be to get to their destination as quickly as possible - this means that they usually exceed the speed limit, stop where they want to (this can be blamed on the passengers themselves who dictate to the driver where they want to get on or off as taxis in South Africa don’t have designated stop areas whiles in transit), cut across traffic, weaving in and out of lanes, jump a red robot (traffic light) and play booming music.  When drivers reach their end destination and queue for their next load of passengers, they can queue for up to 2 hours and because of this they tend to go and “skarrel”(trawl) for passengers on the side of the road, because passengers are few and far between in “Off peak” (normally between 10h00-15h00). While trawling, drivers tend to drive very slowly and will play deaf to the request of passengers to speed up or to leave the rank with 1 or 2 passengers short. Taxi drivers are also politically aware and it is not uncommon for taxi associations to call for a boycott if they agree with the view of a particular course or political party, trade union or if they have a grievance against police or traffic police.  The public is generally warned when they go on strike but in most cases when a Go-slow (no warning) is called thousands of pedestrians are left stranded with no means of getting to work unless there are busses operating in the area or they can afford private transport.

 Because of their habits to flaunt the rules of the road drivers have become the target of the traffic police who actively patrol the streets on the lookout for taxis who violate traffic rules. Fines are issued out and promptly ignored, resulting in warrants of arrest –neither are deterrents or incentives to abide to the rules of the road.  Often if the traffic police put up a road block, taxi drivers with a clear record and roadworthy taxis would warn their fellow taxi drivers about the location of the roadblock via a phone call or by flashing their lights. Those drivers with outstanding warrants normally drop their passengers off on the side of the road to wait for another taxi and then duck and dive their way back to the taxi rank to wait out the roadblock.

In general the public would love to stop the taxi operators from abusing the system but because of a lack of a decent and reliable public transport system, the public are caught in a situation whereby they rely on the taxi operators to get them to and from their destination.

Missions trip to Ghana by Rob Meineke

Just a bit more than 365 days ago I left Cape Town on a wet and cold day for my introduction into Ghana and whatever else the next several months had in store. This is  now a rather good time to write a piece on my experience while working in Ghana as it’s been a year and so perfect time to reflect.

Before I discuss Ghana and other such topics perhaps a brief introduction about myself is probably a good idea. I was born and grew up in Durban, South Africa where I schooled followed with paramedic school. So far this has been a highly exciting and interesting career involving work within the typical emergency response ambulance in which I got to race all over the city, in addition I worked in hospital trauma facilities and standby for sporting activities. Additionally there was a period based within private-5 star game reserves (Madikwe and the Sabie Sands) within our country.  I am a big fan of the wildlife that our part of the world is fortunate enough to protect so made the journey into the first reserve with much excitement. I love the bushveld experience and thus make frequent ventures into our national parks, leaving behind the noise of our mad-rush city life is a rather refreshing experience. The more trips I did, the bigger this passion became and so led me to begin studies of a course with which I can eventually qualify as a guide taking tourists on drives and walks in the wilds. I encourage all to make a trip into one of the amazing game reserves within South Africa.

There you have a bit about me in a nutshell and having just typed this sentence I’m struck by the crazy logic that goes with the expression ‘in a nutshell’. What would anyone be doing in a nutshell? It’s generally not a good thing to be described as nuts; no doubt some will wonder about me after this paragraph.

Once I completed my stint in the Sabie Sands reserve I returned to Cape Town which has now become home. I emigrated out of Durban for the amazing mother city sometime during 2010. Anyway, on my return to Cape Town I resumed working on ambulances as before, however in a new and unfamiliar territory. Not that it stayed unfamiliar for very long, so should no longer find myself lost, however if I did happen to lose my bearings I have conveniently come up with a sneaky excuse to say…. ‘I’m not local…I’m from Ghana!’.

After checking my passport I can confirm that it was the 23 September 2012 when I first arrived in Ghana. The weather seems to constantly play a cruel trick every time I leave Cape Town for a destination that will be hot. As is the norm in this scenario Cape Town was wet and icy cold. So I had to brave wearing summer clothing in preparation for the arrival in a place not very far north of the equator. Stopping off at church for a few goodbyes before the flight wearing weather inappropriate gear got me a few odd looks but made it safely onboard the aircraft and figured I was now safe against the possibility of hypothermia setting in. My what-to-wear choice earlier in the day proved to be the correct one when I arrived in Accra when leaving the aircraft instantly hitting a thick wall of hot and humid air. Remember I used to live in Durban humidity, seems I’ve adjusted to Cape Town weather quite speedily.

Accra is the capital city of Ghana as well as the largest with an estimated population of 4 million people. It is situated on the coast however it doesn’t house the main harbour centre within Ghana. The big commercial harbour is a few hours west of Accra in a town called Takoradi including a nearby Navy base (I have also spent some time within Takoradi). Instead Accra makes good use of the ocean with the presence of fancy beach resorts. A good afternoon can be spent relaxing in the sun at one of these. Looking at a different scale, within the whole of Ghana a little over 70% of the population is Christian with the rest being Moslem. Early one Sunday morning I took a walk to a nearby shop and on the way passed a lively church service being held in a marquee. As I passed the worshipers all waved and cheered me on my way. Felt like a VIP for a moment.

Anyway I soon got into the routine of life working here in Accra. I was employed by a European owned company which provides medical assistance to signed-up members. These members are mainly the oil companies, diplomats and their families and a few other individuals. Some years back the company I am now working for assisted the Ghanaian government in the setting up of the public ambulance service and from what I have seen and heard it is generally at good standards.

A question that seems to be the popular one from those who ask me about life here is ‘what is the food like?’. A tough question to answer as I am accommodated in the company compound which cater for western preferences. However there is a local dish that is served occasionally. The meal is known as Red-Red and is incredibly tasty. It consists of a spicy bean stew served with fried plantain which happens to look like overgrown bananas. A meal which the locals enjoy is rice, and I mean rice as it is, not served alongside chicken (or whatever else you fancy) but rice on its own. This sure was a rather odd concept me, what a horribly bland meal! Apparently it is seen as some sort of fancy meal to them as it is a relatively new food item for this part of the world.

One morning while driving around Accra, to be more precise sitting in the passenger seat as the local employees do the driving for us. This prevents people like me getting horribly lost in the road system which makes no apparent sense or causing total mayhem. Anyway, that’s a separate story, the point here is that I noticed a sign on the roadside advertising the sale of ‘dressed rabbits’. Before my imagination got carried away I curiously asked my driver what was up here?? Apparently it’s not a furry creature with hat and coat, instead is rabbit which can be eaten and so is already skinned and ready for cooking. Would ‘undressed’ not be more appropriate in this case?

Random signs sure are not the only feature on the Ghanaian roads, the traffic itself here is, to put it simply, chaos with cars driving where and when it suits their own need. Although this chaos crazily enough does seem to work perfectly well so the seemingly unordered system must have some method to it. I haven’t heard of too many car accidents happening on city roads although there is the occasional incident out on inter-city routes caused from a combination of factors such as speed, poor vehicle condition and goats who walk onto the roadway without notify drivers hurtling up to them. So as I said that in the city, cars playing dodge’em seems to work well and without incident. I have the idea that it works well providing everyone agrees to this unwritten code of madness. Should I have a moment of bravery and get behind the wheel and bring my sense of road rules into play the whole system would probably get screwed up causing numerous prangs in domino effect throughout Accra.

As there aren’t many car accidents within Accra, well not any that are serious enough to warrant medical response that is not a big part of my work here. Infact I haven’t attended a single car accident in Ghana. Not that there is any shortage of other sorts of incidents from the minor through to critical emergency patients. I work alongside a team of highly skilled paramedics from Europe and South Africa as well as an occasional visitor from the USA and we get to use of state-of-the-art equipment to do whatever we need to for the unfortunate victim. This proves all very well up until the point we reach the hospital. Government medical facilities in SA can do with improvements, or so I thought up until I discovered what passes for hospitals in Ghana. The government facilities here are dirty, very understaffed and may or may-not have the required facilities on hand, this becomes a day by day challenge to figure out the best place to transport the sick/injured. Often on arrival at one of these destinations we have to wait some length of time until the hospital is ready for us, which is not at all ideal when dealing with time sensitive incidents. Back home, this problem is avoided by calling ahead to the hospital informing we are on the way in, for some reason that doesn’t work here.

 There are 2 private hospitals in Accra however most definitely not on par with South African privates. Also these 2 facilities unfortunately are unable to provide the necessary care needed for critical treatment. This means we do at times find the need to contact insurance companies to arrange special planes equipped as a flying ICU to come collect the patient and transfer to another country for further suitable treatment.

It is for this reason that I have been assured that should I be injured (hope not) I will be flown out and sent to one of the top hospitals within Johannesburg. However I would much rather not make use of this sort of aircraft. Preferably would be best to travel home as a normal passenger onboard SAA, which I shall be doing in a few weeks. So till then keep well.