Windhoek — Taxi dons are shooting down the Government's efforts to enforce compliance with international standards on seating configurations on long-distance mini-buses and taxis.

They are saying the enforcement is politically motivated by individuals who want to turn people against the current Government leadership.

The Ministry of Works and Transport intends to enforce a law that requires all seating modifications to be compliant with the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) as from January 1, 2009. Taxi owners are currently operating under a one-year indemnity period that ends on December 31.

However, taxi owners say they would have none of it, arguing that there are ulterior motives behind the enforcing of the law other than saving lives as claimed.

Taxi owners have particularly lashed out at the current Minister of Works and Transport, Helmut Angula, for introducing a law without proper consultations with taxi bosses.

"Who introduced this law, was it really the Government? For us, it appears to be a person with intentions of turning [ordinary] people against the Government, wanting people to hate the Government," they contend.

Taxi bosses say they would meet tomorrow to discuss their own recommendations to the ministry. They want the enforcement delayed by at least another year.

Forensic investigations on recent fatal accidents involving public passenger vehicles have revealed that many lives could have been saved if the seating modifications were done according to SABS standards. The forensic investigations zoomed in on the 2005 Grootfontein fatal accident in which 28 people died as well as the Rehoboth accident that claimed 12 lives.

Long-distance taxi bosses have until the last day of December to have their mini-buses reconfigured accordingly. There are currently about 144 registered buses with seating configurations not SABS compliant. All these taxis would be de-registered come January 2009.

To prepare the public, the taxi industry and law enforcement agencies, the ministry launched a public information campaign last Friday. In attendance at the meeting were the media, some of the influential taxi owners, chief of law enforcement agencies, and senior officials from the Ministry of Works and Transport.

Taxi owners in attendance bluntly said: "We are not ready and we are not going to do it [re-configuring seating capacity according to SABS standards].

Taxis are the only mode of transport for the northern people. We are serving the nation."

The ministry says the one-year period given to the industry is sufficient and that there have been numerous consultation meetings with the Namibia Buses and Taxi Association (Nabta).

Nabta's office administrator, Karuaera Uapingena, said he does not understand what sort of consultation taxi owners are asking for.

"We have records of letters we wrote to taxi owners since the beginning of this year. Often very few people, if anyone at all, show up for meetings. They always have excuses of being busy or not being available on that specific day.

We have been asking to meet taxi owners (so) that we formulate proposals to the Minister [of Works and Transport] as early as February and March this year," said Uapingena.

SABC compliance seating configuration modification governing act was introduced by an Act of Parliament in 2000 but has never been enforced. The law requires that modification of seating configuration on public passenger transport vehicles be carried out using materials and measurements specified by SABS standards.

Acting Director for Transportation Policy and Regulation at the Ministry of Works and Transport, Eugene Tendekule, said fatal accidents could be avoided by enforcing the use of SABS compliant seating configuration.

Forensic investigations uncovered that in both the Grootfontein and Rehoboth accidents "the seating structures did not give any room for survival during the accidents".

"The seats became projectiles during the accidents. Common materials, that were not tested for duress, were used to reconfigure the seats and could not withstand the stress that they were put under during the accident," said Tendekule.

In the Rehoboth accident, only the original front seats fitted by the manufacturer remained intact. All the other seats were ripped off the car floorboard with their bolts sending passengers flying all over the accident scene.

Tendekule maintained that Government has not banned the modification of seating configuration but merely introduced a governing rule on how to carry out the modifications.