Uber denies drivers involved in attacks on riders
E-hailing service Uber has denied that drivers on its platform were to blame for recent attacks on riders and instead said it was likely because people were climbing into the wrong cars.
Last week, Sunday Times reported that four people in Pretoria had opened cases of robbery and assault, allegedly at the hands of Uber drivers.
The report came after numerous users on Facebook — including several on the popular Pretoria community group “Eks van die Ooste” — complained about being attacked by alleged Uber drivers.
Since the Sunday Times report, three more cases were opened, bringing the total to seven.
But Uber’s general manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Kagiso Khaole, told MyBroadband that its internal investigation of the reported incidents showed that its drivers were not involved.
“We can confirm from the information available to us that the incidents were perpetrated by third-party individuals and not by drivers on the Uber platform,” Khaole said.
“In some of the cases reported, [the incidents] took place as a result of the alleged victims getting into the wrong vehicle.”
Khaole said these incidents could happen and urged riders to verify their driver and vehicle details before entering a car.
“Riders can also enable PIN verification without which a trip cannot start,” Khaole said.
Khaole said Uber was in touch with law enforcement officials to provide any information that would assist with resolving the cases.
Kagiso Khaole, Uber general manager for Sub-Saharan Africa
In a follow-up article by Sunday Times, Khaole elaborated more on Uber’s investigation process, which includes getting statements from drivers and analysing allegations through its technology.
Khaole denied the allegations of one of the victims — Kayleigh Marx.
Marx said an Uber driver who picked up her and her friends after a night out in Menlo Park following the Springboks game at Loftus had driven to another location near their pickup point.
It was here where the alleged driver’s accomplices appeared and robbed her friends of their iPhones, after the driver locked the doors and pepper-sprayed one of them.
According to Khaole, the driver in question said nothing unusual happened and that he had actually returned two phones that were left in the car.
“As per our analysis of the trip, there was a conflict between the rider’s story and the driver’s story. The driver’s story matches the GPS points that we see.”
“We can see the driver had a pickup, then we see him leaving and coming back,” Khaole said.
“There were two trips. There was one at 01:11 AM and one at 01:18 AM, and a completed trip at 01:28 AM.”
“Then he went on working normally, doing trips and getting five-star reviews.”
Khaole also said there were messages between the driver and the rider when the rider changed the dropoff point to Arcadia.
Victim hits back at Uber’s version of events
But Marx has denied that she changed the dropoff location from Menlo Park to Arcadia at any point in the booking process.
“We called a ride to go to our guesthouse in Menlo Park, which is in the same area where we were picked up,” Marx said.
“I’ve never been to Arcadia in my entire life, why would I want to go from Menlo Park to there at the end of the night if our guesthouse was in Menlo Park?”
She also reiterated her previous conviction that the driver of the car she and her co-victims climbed into matched the profile picture provided on the app and that they had checked that the licence plates were correct.
While the car used by the driver in question had a dashcam, Khaole said its footage could not be recovered because it had an automatic 72-hour cleanup.
Kayleigh Marx. Credit: Facebook/Kayleigh Marx
MyBroadband has also tried to make contact with several of the other victims that reported their experiences on Facebook.
Marx was the only one who replied when we asked whether she had used the app, and she stood by her previous statements.
In a post on Facebook, she told users that verifying the number plate and ensuring the PIN was not enough.
“Please check the boot, make sure the child lock is not on and make sure your Uber takes the correct route,” she said.
It is also important to emphasise that the only way to book a legitimate Uber driver in South Africa is to use the mobile app.
While Uber allows users to call for a ride in certain countries, this is not the case in South Africa.
E-hailing associations have also warned about criminals who pose as Uber or Bolt drivers at the entrance of frequented places like shopping malls and airports.
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