Cele - Task team to deal with ongoing Ugu, Harry Gwala taxi violence
A dedicated task team is to be set up to deal with the ongoing taxi violence that's gripped parts of KwaZulu-Natal.
There has particularly been a spate of killings in the Ugu and Harry Gwala districts, with at least 24 people murdered in the first half of this year.
Police Minister Bheki Cele was in the area on Thursday to discuss safety concerns with taxi associations.
He said one of the problems is the circulation of what he calls dirty money among associations.
Cele said some of it is used for contract killings.
"One association here collects about R14 million a year. That's the money that you decide maybe as the chair, secretary or executive - you just decide how to use that money completely unaccounted for."
READ: Fivefold increase in taxi-related killings in Ugu, Harry Gwala districts
"Those are the things that we have to stop but clean the industry and the ownership level because those [hitmen] don't kill people free. Somebody pays them."
Cele said some of the money doesn't make it to the taxman.
"The best place to deal with that is SARS, so the teams that we are going to put here is to speak to other ministers that I have appraised some of them to say there is this issue and can we take this direction so that SARS and SIU become part of it.
"So that somebody can be able to explain the kind of wealth that comes here. Because you can see there is a lot of dirty wealth."
MORE ON ECR
