South Africa officially approves E-hailing service as legal public transport

By Mark Ogagan

South Africa’s Department of Transport says e-hailing services like Uber and Bolt are now officially recognised as legal forms of public transport.after the body gazetted the National Land Transport Amendment Act (NLTAA).

Taxi Body South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) has argued that the delay in implementing the NLTAA created unfair competition and allowed e-hailing vehicles to operate without the same legal obligations as they do.

Now that the Act has been gazetted, e-hailing operators are expected to have operating licenses, their vehicles must be branded to indicate which company they’re affiliated with, and they must also have safety features like panic buttons.

Spokesperson for the Department of Transport Collen Msibi says under the Act, e-hailing vehicles will now operate in defined geographic zones.

“The Act ushers in a new service type, the e-hailing service, as an additional choice of transport to the traveling public. It also seeks to affirm and officially recognize the new service type that has been treated as an illegal operation by the other service type operators on the streets.”