If you get on to William Nicol (R511?) from the N14 side and drive back up to Fourways you will see a lot of taxis going on the wrong side and cutting in and out all over the place. Mostly due to all the road works there. Very frustrating but it got me thinking because I see this get to the extreme quite often...
These guys obviously drive back and forth all day long, mostly in shocking traffic, and they are incentivized to make as many trips as possible. Sticking to traffic rules will assumedly lose each of them an additional 2-4 trips daily so they do this to make more money, obviously.
The problem then is the system, because a formalized first world public transport system would most likely involve designated/demarcated interval stops. Thus not having any incentive for the drivers to speed up and do stupid things to make more money. You would simply optimize the system to have the least amount of infrastructure for the most effective income, possibly further subsidized by government. Each driver then is merely paid a wage.
So perhaps it is unwise to blame the taxi driver but instead blame the stupid taxi associations and of course the inept government. Sure the taxi driver is not a victim or purely innocent in all of this and a more civilized approach is necessary, but I think a root cause analysis goes a bit deeper than that.
Just a thought though

could be wrong.