The deadly turf war over South Africa’s lucrative minibus taxi industry has recorded one of its bloodiest days after gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying 17 members of a drivers’ association.
Eleven people died and four were wounded in the ambush while returning to Johannesburg after a colleague’s funeral in KwaZulu-Natal province on Saturday.
The targeted attack came days after two similar incidents in Johannesburg in which a driver was shot dead at the wheel and a gunman killed two taxi operators who were under police guard.
South Africa’s taxi wars, which have raged since the 1980s, have been linked to most of the 1,500 contract killings recorded since 2000. Fifteen million commuters, 70 per cent of those travelling each day, rely on the