Joburg partners with taxi and e-hailing sectors on women’s safety - IOL

Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has promised to join forces with the taxi industry and e-hailing companies to make the city safer for women, as fears over gender-based violence continue to grow.

Morero was speaking at the Johannesburg Mayoral Lecture at Soweto Theatre on Sunday, September 20, where he said the city had recently engaged taxi associations and agreed to work together to tackle gender-based violence and improve safety for women using public transport.

“We will become the eyes and ears of the police and our communities. We will not turn a blind eye. We will go into dark spaces and make them safe for our women to walk, run, live and play,” Morero said.

He said the partnership would also extend to e-hailing services, which he acknowledged had become a concern because some crimes occur during e-hailing trips.

“The growth of the economy becomes central to our ability to create safer public transport, and that is why a partnership with the taxi associations is needed in an attempt to create a safer environment there, and that will also include e-hailing, which has probably disappointed a whole lot of us because some of these crimes happen at the level of e-hailing. So, something needs to be done in that environment.” 

His comments come as police continue to investigate the deaths of nine women in Ekurhuleni. Eight have been identified, while three suspects appeared in court on Monday over the murder of the ninth victim, whose body was found in Dawn Park. 

Morero said the city’s approach would go beyond infrastructure, with safety expected to form part of its service-delivery programmes.

South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) Greater Johannesburg spokesperson Sabata Mbobo said the taxi industry was working with the city and had begun training some drivers and queue marshals in public relations and customer care.

“We as SANTACO Greater Johannesburg respect all women. We have trained some of our queue marshals and drivers about public relations and customer care. We condemn any form of gender-based violence,” Mbobo said.

At a national women’s safety summit last month, SANTACO said women’s safety must become standard practice in the taxi industry, with safer ranks, adequate lighting, and access to safe toilets among the issues needing urgent attention.

For women using e-hailing services, Bolt said its safety measures include an in-app panic button, live location and trip sharing, Ride Check monitoring, pick-up codes, and a safety map for high-risk areas.

Eligible female passengers can also use Bolt’s Women for Women category to request rides from women driver-partners.

Simo Kalajdzic, Bolt South Africa senior operations manager and spokesperson, said serious complaints against drivers were treated as a priority.

“Once a report is received, a trained member of Bolt’s Safety team contacts the reporting party to hear their account in full, conduct a welfare check and explain the next steps,” Kalajdzic said.

He said drivers were blocked from the platform while serious complaints were investigated, with permanent removal possible depending on the outcome.

“Bolt then conducts a thorough internal review using available system data, including the full trip record: how the trip began, the times and distances travelled, the route taken, any deviation from the expected route and how the trip ended.” 

Bolt said it was also engaging the city and organisations including the Crime Intelligence and Security Management Association, the Institute for Security Studies, JoziMyJozi, the Gauteng Protective and Monitoring Association, and private security companies to share safety information, identify high-risk areas, and strengthen responses to threats facing commuters.