hammered<\/a> on the problem in the past few weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAllie spoke to several e-hailing drivers who have complained that the Tshwane Metro Police Department has intensified the impounding of their vehicles if they don’t have road carrier permits since late 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amendments to the National Land Transport Act that came into effect in June 2024 added e-hailing as a subcategory of metered taxis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The changes enable and require e-hailing drivers in South Africa to obtain road carrier permits for legally transporting passengers in exchange for payment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move was largely welcomed by e-hailing operators, drivers and associations, who embraced the need for increased regulation in the industry, particularly with regards to safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has stopped issuing permits for e-hailing permits indefinitely, citing a two-year backlog in processing applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EPC alleged that the department had only issued licences for 9,000 out of 30,000 applicants, with the remaining still under consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This shows that e-hailing operators are keen to comply,” the EPC insisted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
E-hailing drivers also told Allie they wanted to comply and had already obtained all the other documents to prove they could operate safely and legally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Allie, the Gauteng regulatory entity has asked the city to be lenient with permitless e-hailing drivers who can produce proof of application, such as a slip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Allie said these drivers were still having their vehicles seized, including in large-scale operations such as roadblocks set up in areas with a lot of e-hailing activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Tshwane’s website states the release fee for an impounded vehicle is R1,893, Allie alleged that the drivers are paying between R3,000 and R6,000 to get their cars back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With no recourse for becoming compliant and intensified TMPD enforcement, they run the risk of having their car impounded again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We know that the impounding of e-hailing vehicles is a lucrative source of revenue for Tshwane, but the city cannot continue prioritising profit over people,” Allie said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wanatu drivers also without road carrier permits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Allie has also learnt that newly-launched Afrikaans e-hailing app Wanatu operates without permits for transporting passengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During her interviews with other e-hailing drivers, Allie bumped into a driver from Wanatu, who said he did not have a road carrier permit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allie followed up with Wanatu CEO Judith van der Walt, who allegedly said she was unaware that the company’s drivers required road carrier permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While she took no issue with the service itself, Allie has questioned why Tshwane was applying double standards in its enforcement against drivers of the different services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Our issue is not necessarily with Wanatu, at least not right now,” she said. “They operate as they’ve been allowed to operate.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Our issue is with a biased TMPD that impounds the vehicles of some and not others \u2014 for the same offence. They discriminate, for reasons best known to them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nWanatu cars at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTshwane hits back <\/h2>\n\n\n\n Tshwane roads and transport MMC Tlangi Mogale has labelled Allie’s complaints over the permits issue and impounding as “misinformation” and insisted the city was working to assist e-hailing operators requiring intervention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also alleged that the TMPD had impounded one Wanatu vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They sent their lawyer to come and make representations to try and get the vehicle released,” said Mogale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He could not succeed as he was told that the vehicle didn’t have an operating licence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mogale also alleged that the metro had only become aware of Wanatu’s activities in the last week of January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Allie disputed this argument, as Wanatu was launched in October 2024, and its 50 vehicles are all company-owned and clearly branded, which would make them even easier to identify than those used by Bolt, InDrive, or Uber drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mogale also accused Wanatu of only recruiting “Afrikanner speaking” drivers, a practice the metro deemed unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It appears that Mogale conflated the cultural identity of Afrikaner, most commonly adopted by white people, with the language of Afrikaans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wanatu has no requirements for drivers to be Afrikaners \u2014 they must only be able to speak Afrikaans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most Afrikaans speakers in South Africa are not Afrikaners or white people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MyBroadband asked Wanatu for comment on whether it had applied for obtained road carrier permits, but the company had not responded by the time of publication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subsequent to our queries, it temporarily halted its services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Wanatu services are temporarily suspended due to TMPD unlawfully impounding our vehicles and intimidating of our drivers,” the notification stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company said it would be going to court over the issue. “Ons gaan HOFTU,” it said in Afrikaans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A political spat over e-hailing permits between a Gauteng government member and the MMC for roads and transport in Tshwane has revealed that newcomer Wanatu may be operating unlawfully. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":509788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[98713,26172,76540,63589,46908,63267,49389,98712,75724,20853,98577],"class_list":["post-581280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-ayanda-allie","tag-bolt","tag-city-of-tshwane-cot","tag-e-hailing","tag-ride-hailing","tag-ride-hailing-apps","tag-ride-hailing-services","tag-road-carrier-permits","tag-tshwane-metro-police-department-tmpd","tag-uber","tag-wanatu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581280"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":581566,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581280\/revisions\/581566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Wanata-cars-in-front-of-Voortrekker-Monument.jpg\")