Taxi myths and morals
- This column was first published in Maverick, a South African business magazine, on 14 June 2007. In full print glory it looks much better, despite the large photograph of me, so do subscribe if you like it.
There’s one industry that highlights all the best and worst attributes of South Africa. The trick is figuring which is which.
George Burns supposedly once said, “Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.”
In one way, that applies perfectly to the South African taxi industry. But while it embodies the best of this country, it also highlights the worst. Sadly, we often unwittingly condemn the successes and laud the mistakes.
During the final dark years of Apartheid, a legal gap opened up for black entrepreneurs to start what must count as one of the most successful home-grown industries in history. The rise of the minibus taxi disproved a number of myths.
It grew among the poor communities in the townships, where the vast majority of the target market earned no more than labourer’s wages. The industry had no capital base, but that did not deter private risk-takers. They didn’t – and couldn’t – call upon the government to create a tax-funded, state-run monopoly. Nobody argued that mass transit was a “public good” requiring massive infrastructure investment offering a return on investment only in the long term. Nobody said it can only be provided by the state as a public service, lest the poor find they can’t afford fares levied by operators motivated only by profit.
They just got on with it and disproved the myth – still common among the “socially conscious” elite – that the profit motive cannot deliver an essential basic service to the poor.
