Benoni residents have protested the new taxi rule ending touting, demanding that taxis return to picking up passengers near their homes. The deputy chair of the Benoni Taxi Association, Edna Dlamini, stated that residents are unhappy because the taxis are no longer touting or picking up passengers on the road in an effort to combat rising crimes. Disgruntled community members took to the streets in Etwatwa, burning tires and chanting.
Several road closures were seen leading up to the Etwatwa taxi rank, covered in rocks and stones. The community's plea is to have taxis go back to touting and enter the community. Thabiso Mofokeng, one of the protesters, said that the real reason taxis want to stop touting is because they want to keep all the money at the ranks, as drivers would make extra money by going inside the communities. He also disputed the reason the association gave about the crime, saying that "they are using it as an excuse."
Nkosi Nkabinde, another protester, said that the crime was less when they were touting because now they have stopped their mothers having to walk long distances to the taxi rank and are vulnerable to crime in the area. They wrote a memorandum of demands to the association but were ignored. South African Police Service spokesperson Colonel Noxolo Kweza said the association needed to provide proof of cases alleged to have been turned down by the police.
