Avoidable Conflict In Taxi Protest

THE eruption of violence this week after Police intervened to stop a march by protesting taxi drivers was unnecessary, and Namibians, all of whom have the right to peaceful protest and demonstrations, do need to restrain themselves in tense situations like this.

As usual, there are those who support the striking taxi drivers, saying that the Police used heavy-handed tactics against them; and then there are the others who maintain that there were more injuries to the Police than taxi drivers, and some of the latter were also armed and unnecessarily aggressive.It was an unfortunate incident all round, and hopefully there are lessons to be learned from this experience.A number of issues have emerged from the protest which came about as a result of what many (particularly taxi drivers) perceive to be a very steep escalation in fines, which they claim are unaffordable. (Many of) the taxi drivers downed tools and took to the streets in protest, both here and in northern Namibia, demanding that they be exempted or the fines reduced.We have said before, and repeat again, that high fines do not please anyone, even law-abiding citizens. They are not necessarily affordable even for middle-income earners, let alone the low-income working group.But then should the rationale behind fines be affordability? Probably not. For they are designed as deterrents, with the ultimate aim of protecting lives on our roads.And the answer to avoiding fines clearly does lie in being a law-abiding road user, taxi driver or ordinary civilian. This needs to be remembered by all.Taxi drivers are not the only transgressors on our roads by any means, and accident statistics may even prove that they’re not the main culprits. But as foolish as it would be to blame them for all road mishaps, it would also be foolish to pretend that they’re not a thorn in the flesh of most law-abiding drivers in Windhoek. Quite the contrary. They do tend to act as though they are a law unto themselves; seldom stopping at red lights and often stopping on red lines to pick up passengers, among others. There is an even bigger onus on them to be law-abiding road users, as they are also responsible for paying passengers whom they transport all day and virtually every day. And those who take taxis are entitled to a safe drive.All drivers must abide by the rules of the road, and in so doing, both fines and accidents would be minimised.Those who are fined for one or other offence are always able to fight it out in a court of law if they object to paying the fine. They may not succeed, but they do have that option open to them.The situation vis-a-vis Nabta is clearly an uncomfortable one. Nabta cannot represent both the taxi owners and drivers, and so perhaps one of the solutions that has come out of the recent fracas, is the fact that the drivers will now unionise themselves – a forum which will allow them to articulate their grievances in a more constructive manner than the way in which they recently made their protests known to the public.They too have a right to drive vehicles properly maintained and serviced by the owners, and should also insist on conditions making it easier for them to operate a safe, pleasant and affordable experience for commuters.Those who were arrested in the set-to with the Police have been charged with a number of offences, and in this regard the law must take its court.But perhaps some important lessons have been learned, and some new steps taken to guard against the possibilities of violent protest in the future, resulting in injuries to both law enforcers and the drivers themselves.Among others, they should set standards for taxi drivers, and adherence to the law, and stopping for passengers in non-pick-up zones must be clearly stipulated.At the end of the day, we hope that the fines, along with more law-abiding drivers, will minimise the senseless accidents that are so often the order of the day in our city streets.