Pretoria - A peaceful and professional relationship between government, the taxi industry and passengers is non-negotiable, says Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele.
Speaking at the annual Southern African Transport conference in Pretoria on Monday, Mr Ndebele said chaos, violence and volatility in the taxi industry belonged to the past.
"A sustainable public transport system cannot exclude the taxi industry from playing a bigger role in the economy of our country.
"Peace and a professional relationship between government, the taxi industry and passengers are non-negotiable," he said.
Mr Ndebele said through the recently established negotiating forum, he will be meeting representatives from the taxi industry from the nine provinces before the end of this week.
The former Premier of KwaZulu-Natal said his department had initiated the negotiating forum so that the taxi industry could become a key part of the South African economy.
"We are using our interaction to encourage the industry to participate in the entire transport value-chain.
"This includes buses, freight, rail, transport, finance and fuel to mention but a few," he said.
He told delegates that the 2010 FIFA World Cup is about placing transport infrastructure at the head of moving South Africa from being a developing country, to being a developed country.
The minister said the absence of adequate transport infrastructure slows down foreign direct investment flows which are soon redirected away from developing countries.
"Inadequate transport infrastructure is a severe cost to the country. A sustainable transport sector must firstly be able to grow from year to year," he said.
To address some of the transport challenges, he said, they have increased the budget allocation for the transport infrastructure to prepare for the 2010 FIFA World Cup from R13.6 billion to R19.6 billion over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
