Who will win the Uber taxi war in South Africa?

     

The way that the taxi hailing app, Uber, has been received so far in South Africa by the taxi industry seems to be in line with the resistance experienced in France, the UK, the USA and many other countries. The meter taxi operators in the South African cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town are up in arms with Uber and are not having any of this “new-fangled nonsense” in their backyard. 

Just as the Luddite movement in early nineteenth century Britain reacted to the Industrial Revolution's ushering in of new machines in the factories (Violent protests and mass destruction of the new technology), we see similar patterns of response taking place today.

To a certain extent, it is understandable that when one’s livelihood is at stake, extreme measures are taken to defend it. There is need for a reality check, however. While the traditional taxi operators in Johannesburg, Cape Town and elsewhere in the world where Uber has entered have the support of government and the unions in their hostility towards Uber, the hard truth is that the growth of any technology that is efficient and cost effective to stakeholders, cannot be inhibited. The fact that this phone app has grown to a 41 billion dollar business empire is proof enough that it is here to stay and if current players want to stay relevant, they need to catch up with the times and see how they can align themselves with the evolving and technologically driven business world.

Uber itself has attacted competitors worldwide such as Lyft, Didi Kuaidi and Google who have come up with their own versions of ride sharing and e-transportation services. We need to kiss goodbye the romantic images of waving down a yellow cab on the sidewalks of New York or whistling for its black equivalent in the streets of London. Soon, the practice of having to unsuccessfully negotiate the hefty fares of cab operators at Johannesburg’s park station will be over. The frustration of phoning taxi companies and waiting for ages for a taxi to arrive will soon be history too.

Despite a few negative incidents, mobile apps such as Uber are generally offering faster, cheaper, safer and more reliable ways of securing a taxi ride. Features such as driver ratings by passengers mean that the old adage “The customer is king,” might just get a breath of fresh air. With time, we should see the Ubers of this world transforming not just the meter taxi industry of South Africa, but also it's notorious commuter minibus taxi (“Kombi”) counterpart.

We can easily predict what the reaction of the lot at the infamous Noord Street taxi rank will be; rowdy and violent.  Years ago, many traditional shop owners in the townships of South Africa when faced with competition from Asian immigrants who set up more competitive shops in the townships, chose to react by burning and looting the competitors’ shops and harming them physically. They however failed to reign in on the Asians who have now dominated the township retail industry. Had the local shop owners opted to find ways of becoming more competitive and emulating the methods of the new market players, many would still be in business today. 

Violence and intimidation are therefore not solutions when confronted by a business threat. Both the meter taxi and “Kombi” operators need to become proactive by studying the competitor’s business model and poising themselves to fit into the emerging scheme of things. Passengers will also have to come on board eventually as the momentum builds up towards techno-based transportation.

One hopes that as the “App Revolution” continues to unravel in many spheres of our lives, we will witness solutions that bring better services in clinics, hospitals, municipal offices, government departments and a host of other places where service delivery to the public is currently overpriced and totally lacking in quality.

Lady Amelia-Latest celebrity scandal in Africa

It seems Africa, South Africa in particular, is fast becoming a breeding ground for immoral and often criminal bahaviour by the who-is-who of American and British celebrity circles. If it is not Shrieni Dewani getting his wife knocked off in Cape Town, it is Paris Hilton puffing away at marijuana at a world cup stadium. You might want to refer to the issue of Wesley Snipes' arrest for possession of a fake South African passport and subsequently turning into a figitive hiding in Namibia from the American taxman. Need more examples? There is Madonna and her controversial and her irregular baby shopping spree in Malawi. Who can forget Naomi Campbell's  "blood diamond flirtations" with dictator Charles Taylor or Mark Thatcher's $500 000 fine for his admitted involvement in a coup plot in Equitorial Guinea. The latest shenanigans on the tabloids involve Lady Amelia's alleged "Burger rage" at a McDonalds in Cape Town.

Although there are always two sides to a story, one wonders how Ricci Cinti, a man on crutches could have ended up in hospital for a brain scan if indeed he was not assaulted as claimed by Lady Amelia after his taxi went in front of her car in the drive-in queue. Her father Earl Spencer has spoken up for her, saying that she acted in self-defence. Why would Lady Amelia and her male companion have sped off after the incident if they were the victims? Were they "running" for their lives? I hardly think so. Had they been fleeing for their lives, eye witnesses would not have taken their vehicle's licence plate number and handed it over for Cinti and the taxi driver to  press charges. I eagerly await the outcome of that case and Lady Amelia's counter assault case.

If people really could turn in their graves, this would be something to make Princess Diana turn in her grave. Who wants to be an aunt to a spoilt brat with drama queen tendencies laced with emotional and psychological instability? I could ask as well, who wants to be a father to such a person but then it seems Earl Spencer condones this behaviour. In fact, I will be so brave as to hold him partly if not greatly repsonsible for the way his daughter has turned out due to his own chaotic and irresponsible playboy lifestyle.

Sadly, Lady Amelia has refused to go to university (they might have taught her a thing or to there), and she will continue being lavished with luxurious apartments and fancy cars by daddy dearest without being equally lavished with firm partenal parenting. This heiress of millions of pounds in inheritance, is likely to carry on with her spoilt brat tendencies and we should expect more notorous headlines ahout this "Lady." The USA and Europe have tough travel and migration criteria and regulations for Africans that want to visit or settle there. It is high time similar measures were put in place by African states for our blue blooded friends and their Hollywood compatriots. While it is good that they appreciate the beauty and appeal of this continent, our Western friends need to know that contrary to the belief by some that Africa is a jungle ruled by the law of the jungle, we do have laws and standards for behaviour. You cannot do what you want and you cannot get away with murder (literally and figuratively) just because you are in Africa!

Jesus-was-HIV-positive statement misleading

With the world's attention fixed on Terry Jones and his plans to burn the Holy Quran tomorrow as part of commemorating the 9/11 attacks, another controversial preacher has almost slipped past our noses without us taking much notice of him and his controversial sermon.


The more alert of you however will have read or heard about Reverend Xola Skosana from Khayelitsha, near Cape Town, South Africa who has claimed that Jesus was HIV positive. It still baffles me where on earth this theologically and historically lame theory comes from but there it is folks; something none of you ever thought you would live to hear come out of the mouth of a preacher.


While I concede that one had to be present at the sermon to get the context of that statement, I see it as a dangerous statement to make. Even if the Reverend did not mean it literally, but meant to say that Jesus Christ is alive in everyone, even in HIV-positive people, such a statement is subject to great distortion and misunderstanding. Some are adamant that that he was referring to the Biblical verses in Isaiah which say that Christ bore all our sicknesses and burdens at the cross. They say that Skosana believes therefore that Jesus became HIV-positive when he went to the cross.


I guess only those that attend the Charismatic Way of Life Church will know what their preacher really meant by the statement. Some spheres of the Christian community are already crying heresy and my humble advice is that this man of the pulpit must apologise for the fact that his statement has been misleading and offensive to many.

"Animal behaviour" is not from animals.

Since the beginning of June, I have been tracking gruesome news items of inhuman acts perpetrated by people (in one state of derangement or the other), upon those close to them, people they supposedly love. In South Africa, we read recently about the Mpumalanga man who murdered his girlfriend because she ended their relationship. Then there is the police officer in Johannesburg who shot and killed his wife then shot and injured himself and his pregnant sister in law. Sixteen bullets were pumped into his sister in law who is now fighting for dear life in hospital. In today’s headlines there is another shocker, a seventeen year old Klerksdorp girl sold by her mother to a brothel owner in Cape Town.

Yes, you read correctly, her mother! What happened to the saying, “Blood is thicker than water?” That saying seems to be, “water under the bridge,” nowadays. Although I might be throwing around puns and clichés as I write this piece, the aim is not to be humorous but rather pour scorn yet again at the depths to which the human being has sunk. No one deserves to be abused, tortured or killed, but when it happens between siblings, parents and children or spouses, it is that much more horrific and impossible to comprehend. It really is a mystery why we seem to think that humans are superior to animals. Indeed that was the Almighty’s plan for us but boy, we sure have thrown that right back into his face!

As you read of mothers dumping newly born babies in dust bins, fathers raping their daughters and men shooting their wives and children in a fit of rage, do you ever pause and reflect on how this sick human behaviour contrasts with the caring, protective love that animals reserve for their kith and kin? That is why it always seems ridiculous for me to hear of such behaviour referred to as, "Animal behaviour." What an insult to the millions of animal species that live on this Earth!