{"id":651247,"date":"2026-06-04T08:01:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=651247"},"modified":"2026-06-04T08:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:03:42","slug":"major-south-african-industry-must-say-goodbye-to-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/651247-major-south-african-industry-must-say-goodbye-to-cash.html","title":{"rendered":"Major South African industry must say goodbye to cash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Transport minister Barbara Creecy has said the South African taxi industry should stop using cash in favour of automated, digital transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her address<\/a> at the 8th annual South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) National Elective Conference, the minister said people in the rest of the world have realised that cash was too high risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Aspects of digitising industry operations, what we know is that, at the moment, this industry is still largely a cash industry, but in the rest of the world, people aren’t using cash,” Creecy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We know that there are a lot of projects operating in the digitisation of the fare system in Gauteng. We’ve got to look at how we do that elsewhere.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has already happened to some extent in Cape Town, with the Cape Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association (CODETA) announcing the launch of a new cashless payment system<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It launched the system on 1 June 2026, enabling passengers to add funds to a prepaid card, which is then scanned when they hop into a taxi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are introducing a new cashless system in our taxi industry. Our customers will now be using cards, which they will scan when getting into our vans,” CODETA chair Nceba Enge said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“By doing so, we are also trying to protect them in the morning when they are going to work and when they are coming back home.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enge added that the organisation would ensure cameras were installed inside new taxis to enhance safety and accountability within the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he noted that transitioning to the new technology could present challenges in the initial implementation stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the initiative was relatively well-received, there were concerns about how the new system will function in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commuter Esethu Saliwa said the introduction of the card system was positive, but noted that some consumers may initially find it difficult to plan their taxi fares using the cards instead of cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company helping taxis go cashless<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Anthony Stewart, CEO of Waxd Solutions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Waxd Solutions is one company helping minibus taxis in South Africa go cashless<\/a> through its Automatic Fare Collection System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi called for the industry to transition to a fully cashless system by 2026, Waxd Solutions CEO Anthony Stewart said that his company had a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart said the industry’s transition to digital payments would have several direct and indirect benefits for drivers and passengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first major benefit for both parties was the convenience of not having to handle cash or produce change for taxi fares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, drivers can get instant trip ratification, their income is directly related to the number of passengers they transport, and they get a percentage of the fare from every commuter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switching to digital payments would also allow drivers to have a more formal relationship with taxi owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Most taxi drivers don\u2019t have an employer-employee relationship with the taxi owners; now there is the opportunity for that,” Stewart said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that this would allow drivers to access benefits such as workers’ compensation and contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart said the system would mean that taxi drivers get proof of income, enabling them to be properly financially included in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing financially included means, as a driver, you can now start being recognised by the banks as having solid income and not just being cash-based,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You can now apply for personal finance, vehicle finance, home loans, all kinds of stuff like that. Currently, only 4% of drivers have homes because most are not financially included.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, he said passengers would be able to more easily set aside savings for transport and be assured they have money available to commute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth the driver and the passenger, if they have registered a return drive and something happens while driving in that taxi, they will also qualify for insurance while travelling,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transport minister Barbara Creecy said commuters in the rest of the world have realised that cash was too high risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":629380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[105659,26078,57186,45641,90314,10706,53417,37891,88458,63523],"class_list":["post-651247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-automated-payments","tag-barbara-creecy","tag-card-payments","tag-cash","tag-cashless","tag-department-of-transport","tag-digital-payments","tag-minibus-taxis","tag-south-african-national-taxi-council-santaco","tag-taxis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651247"}],"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\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651247"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651941,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651247\/revisions\/651941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}