Business
South Africa’s dishevelled taxis move millions and the economy
ZOLA BUDD
So far Toyota has been able to fend off rivals. Chinese automakers tried to muscle in, but their low-priced vehicles haven’t been able to take the punishment, owners say. Toyota also has a long track record with the industry, helping it win legal recognition from the apartheid government in the 1980s, which sought to keep blacks from driving cabs.
An early Toyota taxi model was known as a “Zola Budd” in the townships, said Johan van Zyl, Toyota’s head for Africa, after the 1980s South African distance runner famous for her speed and endurance. Taxi owners have a similar resilience. “It’s a bunch of people who had to struggle to establish an industry by themselves,” van Zyl said. “They financed themselves, they created their own industry and their own rules and regulations.”
Copyright Reuters 2014
