Take a taxi from Soweto

A taxi ride from Soweto to the inner city can be quite an experience for first timers. A word of advice: don’t sit on the front seat next to the driver.
IT’S early in the morning on Car Free Day and taxis are jam-packed with passengers rushing to get work or school on time.

On the roadOn the roadOn a street corner in Meadowlands, Soweto, long queues of people wait for a taxi to take them to various parts of the city – anguish written on the faces of those late for work and others simply bored.

A 16-seat taxi skids to a halt and passengers scramble in, all keen to avoid the front and the back seats.

In a minibus taxi, there is an unwritten rule that whoever occupies the front seat next to the driver, has to count the money for the driver. Sometimes there are disputes over how much change is supposed to go where, and the blame falls squarely on those sitting on the front seat.

Giving the driver the incorrect total can also lead to trouble.

Notes of R100, R50 and R20 are not appreciated, especially early in the morning, because then the front seat occupant has to struggle to make change. A single trip from Meadowlands to town is R8.

Stunt driver
A taxi ride from Soweto to the inner city can be quite an experience for first timers. There is never a dull moment in a kasi taxi, with drivers resorting to all sorts of stunts to beat the peak hour traffic.

They are also under pressure to make a certain amount of money in a day, fuelling the rush. And they are competing for passengers with other drivers.

A ride to the Joburg CBD from Meadowlands usually takes an hour to an hour-and-a-half. To pass the time, commuters talk a lot – they talk about their favourite Generations characters, share cooking recipes, moan about traffic jams and, of course, about their children.

Others prefer to read a book or a newspaper; others – especially the younger passengers – listen to music on their cellphones if they don’t have the same taste in music as the driver.

There are usually plenty of stickers plastered inside to entertain you. Some instruct you not to eat or drink inside the taxi; some threaten you not to bang the door or risk punishment though several blood-curdling ways.

From Meadowlands, it’s a trip along the Soweto Highway until Noordgesig, where there is a choice between the Mayfair route or the Booysens route. Because taxis don’t have any form of identification to show their destination, passengers along the road try to stop the driver for a ride by showing various hand signals.

Hand signal
A finger pointing up is used to get to the Joburg CBD and a finger pointing down will get you to any of the many suburbs in Soweto – or the Bara Taxi Rank.

Today, the taxi takes the Soweto Highway route past the massive FNB Stadium, venue for the 2010 World Cup. It never ceases to amaze and many commuters stretch their necks to stare at the 90 000-seat structure, built in the form of an African calabash.

Once in Booysens, the drivers are responsible for transferring their passengers going to End Street or Noord Street to the right taxis, at no additional cost. As one popular sticker on Soweto taxis reads: “Surely, Soweto taxi will take you home”. In this case, a Soweto taxi will surely take you to town.