Nine taxis have been torched at the Nyanga rank.
- Nine taxis – five Toyota Quantums and four Iveco Sprinters – were set alight at the Nyanga taxi rank in Emms Drive shortly after 01:00 on Friday.
- City Fire and Rescue crews extinguished the blaze by 02:00, and no injuries were reported.
- The incident occurred amid ongoing tension between rival taxi associations in the Western Cape.
Nine taxis were set alight at the Nyanga taxi rank in Cape Town in the early hours of Friday morning amid ongoing tension in the industry in the Western Cape.
According to the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service, reports of vehicles on fire at the taxi rank in Emms Drive were received at around 01:05.
Several firefighting crews were dispatched to the scene.
“Crews managed to contain and extinguish the fire by 02:00. Preliminary reports indicate that five Quantum minibuses and four Iveco Sprinters were destroyed in the blaze,” Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said.
No injuries were reported.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said officers remained on the scene while patrol units had been instructed to monitor taxi routes and ranks.
“An enquiry has been registered for investigation and no injuries were reported,” he said.
CATA spokesperson Nkululeko Sityebi said the owners of the torched vehicles were assessing their losses.
“We do not know what happened and we are appealing to the police to assist in investigating this,” he said.
READ | Multiple vehicles gutted in Nyanga taxi rank fire in Cape Town
The incident mirrors a blaze in February last year, when 13 taxis, four Sprinter buses and a civilian vehicle were destroyed in a fire that tore through the Nyanga taxi rank.
The latest arson attack occurred amid escalating tension between the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) and Cape Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) over contested routes.
The dispute has already claimed lives.
Last week, three taxi operators as well as a 14-year-old schoolgirl were killed in violence linked to the conflict. Among those who were killed was Codeta Atlantis chairperson Eugene “Spoed” Titus, 42, who was shot dead outside Atlantis Secondary School while loading pupils into a taxi.
Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile told News24 that, despite a R100 000 reward offered by the City of Cape Town, there has been no breakthrough in the Atlantis taxi-related killings.
“We are still looking,” he said.
“It’s taxi violence that we think is linked to floor-crossing. The violence started with the route in Table View and Atlantis.”
Patekile added that police were working with the provincial Department of Urban Mobility to address the ongoing route disputes.
