LISTEN: Five-year-old boy is left on the roadside after being unable to pay taxi fare
A five-year-old boy is found on the roadside in Canelands, Verulam and it is discovered that he was kicked out of the taxi as he did not have money to pay for the taxi.
We all can't be transported privately to and from school or work, some are forced to use public transport and the reality behind it all isn't always ideal.
Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) posted to Facebook this week about a little boy who was found on the side of the road in Canelands, located in Verulam. The little boy, who is five, was found crying and alone. He did not reveal much information to the RUSA operatives but the team managed to find an ID that revealed his name, Isiphile Jamangile, and that he was in Grade R.
The post received a plethora of concern and interest from community members who wanted to help and were also outraged as to the incident. Many were upset over the taxi driver's behaviour, while some picked on the other passengers and their lack of acting out when the driver did such a thing.
One person said: "This is the worse cruelty I ever heard of the taxi driver, if found must be removed from the taxi sector and his pdp be revoke forever, Thank you very much to the community and RUSA well done guyz much appreciated."
The sad reality is that we cannot expect anything from others, but we cannot paint everyone with the same brush, we just hope that this was an eye-opener for parents and the community.
A resident called in the report to RUSA that she had seen a taxi driver remove the child from the taxi. She went through and spoke to the child and she had found that he had boarded the taxi because he followed an older child/friend and did not have taxi fare for this trip.
It was later revealed that he lived in walking distance to his home and that he did not need to take public transport, that is another reason he did not have any fare for the taxi.
Around 17h30 on Monday, the little boy was reported to have been reunited with his family. Prem Balram from Reaction Unit South Africa spoke to Vic Naidoo about what happened and we have the full interview below.
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