POLICE Minister Fikile Mbalula has been heavily criticised for joking about the violence between Uber drivers and metered taxis.
The minister’s comments were made at Sunnyside Police Station in Tshwane on Tuesday after Uber management asked him to intervene in the violence.
The minister jokingly applauded Uber for restoring dignity to struggling celebrities across Mzansi.
“It’s about the fact that Uber is too sophisticated and it has taken away a portion of the market from the taxi drivers. Metered taxis are more expensive than Uber,” he said.
“Uber is accessible in all places. It can fetch you from your house even if you are a celebrity and you don’t want it to be seen that you don’t have a car. Uber has restored dignity to such people.
“When you are a celebrity you don’t want to be seen in a taxi. You see people jumping out of expensive cars, thanks to Uber. It has restored the dignity of people practising their celebrity status without being interrupted.”
The comments angered many people on social media, who said Mbalula was being insensitive as people had lost their lives in the violence.
- Meanwhile, Mbalula’s address to residents of KwaThema in Ekurhuleni, who had marched to the Springs cop shop to hand over a memorandum, was met with loud cheers yesterday. He said he was bringing back the Amaberethe to the townships.
Gugu Makhonjwa (24) said: “We want the justice system to play its role and we want Mbalula to clean up Springs.”
Mbalula promised to form a tracking unit to trace those who were arrested but walked free.
