Apartheid segregation created the far-flung living areas that make commuting hell for most workers. The resistance to apartheid public transport may hold lessons for the problem of today.
When Western Cape members of the taxi association Santaco arrived at a meeting with the municipality and other officials carrying AK-47 rifles, the talks were called off immediately.
For the past week, taxi associations and drivers, angry at the application of the law and the impoundment of vehicles breaking the law, have held Cape Town's workers to ransom.
Thousands, most burdened with having to use public transport, were left stranded, far from their homes and families, many overnight.
Services most needed in these outlying areas closed, including clinics and schools.
The middle classes of the southern suburbs of Cape Town were generally unaffected and sailed around traffic-free highways and roads far from the smoke and the violence.
Most inconvenienced were domestic workers, gardeners, waiters, kitchen staff and cleaners who could not pitch up for work. Anyone who lived outside the immediate surroundings of the CBD was affected.
So far, estimates of earnings lost run into the billions. They always do. The burning buses and property, all of it, has a cost.
Born in need
If one needs to measure what South Africans think, the public broadcaster's SAfm is one of the essential amplifiers of the national mood.
This week callers...
