SANTACO took these resolutions to the Minister in the December meeting as stated above already, where it further queried from government the basis of its strategic policy on transformation of the public transport sector vis-à-vis introduction of the BRT project. In a move to address the resolutions of the failed Gallagher Summit, the meeting resolved that;
· Government will provide a draft national framework and the taxi industry will make its inputs.
· SANTACO will embark on a provincial roadshows campaign in order to consult with its structures on the framework and how the taxi industry proposes to best participate in the BRT project.
· SANTACO will then consolidate these inputs as the basis of negotiations and ultimately agreement between the taxi industry and government consequently paving way for the National Taxi Summit that will endorse a inclusive BRT project
· Construction of infrastructure will continue uninterrupted as road infrastructure was in the ownership of government.

In SANTACO's view, the draft national framework by government was a government document that represented not only government thinking, but also set preconditions of how government believes the taxi can best participate in the BRT system – a precondition that is exceedingly entrenched in government's “rules of engagement” when proposing its initiatives particularly to the taxi industry. SANTACO then developed its draft position paper that it will furnish together with the government framework to its constituencies during the roadshows to ensure that taxi operators took cognizance of SANTACO's position on this project. SANTACO rejected the BRT project as presented in the government framework. In SANTACO's view, it lost sight of fundamental factors when it introduced the BRT system namely;

· It was introducing a new and untested system replacing it with a century old and tested modal operation.
· It was introducing the BRT project with the sole intention of solving a problem in this case the “taxi industry” and not the real challenge which is “improvement of the public transport service”
· In the same country where government copied the BRT model, there were operators who were casualties of the system. The cut and paste approach implied clearly that the model was not thoroughly investigated and gaps closed to ensure it mutually benefits all affected parties.
· The guarantees made by government in its framework were nothing new to the taxi industry. Just the same old oral promises that the taxi industry blindly accepted.

In fact, these roadshows about BRT had just opened wounds that had only subsided in the lives of the many taxi operators at the hands of government's Taxi Recapitalisation Programme (TRP). Let alone the many forms and shapes this programmes underwent from 1996 until implementation date on 2006, the one common denominator that fits in all this our constituency reported; taxi operators are worse off than they were before its inception. The question is, why the rush of implementing the BRT system when people have converted, bought new vehicles that are still being paid, many still awaiting their scrapping fees, many still awaiting the operating licenses, the list is endless. For sure some of the members of the media here would remember the empowerment deals that were widely reported in the print media about the taxi industry taking minimum of 20% equity stake in the companies that would manufacture TRP compliant vehicles.

During the formalization of the taxi industry that led to the National Taxi Task Team (NTTT) recommendations, government made a list of endless empowerment deals which to date, not one has been offered to the taxi industry, at least in appreciation of the role it played in ferrying political refugees to cross boarders during the pre-democracy era. It was a painful experience to hear operators defining the pre-democracy regime better than the government it voted in numbers. The 14 years into democracy has been an irony of episodes for this 100% black owned entrepreneurial activity. One such telling irony is the subsidy regime which government promised will be effected once the taxi industry has converted and being counted as compliant in the TRP.

Now it is the BRT system with another set of guarantees and like always, without any documentary evidence of substance. This time in the provinces as we consulted with the constituency like we did with the TRP and many other government initiatives where for some reason the taxi industry was consulted, our constituencies said in one accord that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH; and this generation of the taxi leadership will be as equally guilty of selling out on the remaining livelihood of operators that has been slowly diminishing. It has become clear that government does not appreciate the taxi industry as a critical component of the transport sector. For more than a century to date, the taxi industry successfully moved millions of people without subsidy competing against the state subsidized buses and trains, yet we survived and grew in strength. We endured the pains of the imposed deregulation era that led to violence and loss of lives because of the self-centred interests of the apartheid regime, 14 years into democracy we are now confronted with a roundtable systematic plot to nicely get rid of us. When we cite this concern, all we get is a word of mouth for assurance. NO MORE.

The taxi industry was started out of compassion by the black entrepreneurs who with one mind and one purpose, wished to be a solution to the transport problems that blacks suffered as a result of the group areas Act. Our mandate from the provinces is clear, there is no time than now to rise and defend the one accord of the founding fathers of this business. It for this that we wish to state that based on the conditions that;

· The BRT project will be operated on the routes started and made lucrative by the taxi without any form of assistance from government;
· Taxis operating on such routes will consequently have to surrender their businesses to the BRT;
· Participation in the BRT as stated by government is on condition that taxis cannot compete against the BRT operations;

SANTACO then strongly feel that it will only make logical business sense if the taxi industry was would own the BRT project and its entire value chain – a condition which government finds difficult to accede to because municipalities have identified huge business in the BRT and only need to the taxi industry to say yes, in order to make their wishful thinking a reality. They have relegated the taxi industry to operations of the BRT business with the hope that we will gladly accept being at the receiving end, despite them depending on us to make the BRT a feasible business. Our position paper lay the conditions if it is not that way, it is no way at all for the taxi industry. If government remains rigidly resistant to succumb to our proposal, then let every man keep what belongs to him and make the best out of it. We will continue with our business and compete with this BRT like we did with the buses during the Welgemoed deregulation era. This will not be anything new in the business life of the taxi operator.

For all this time, the taxi industry has been doing all the giving to government while government has been doing all the taking. Operators have risen above this and can no longer afford to give. We therefore enter the national taxi summit with firmness of purpose and expectations to bring a conclusive statement about BRT to the taxi operators. It is on this note that we call upon taxi operators to converge at the Gallagher to bear testimony to the historic day that is set to change the live of the taxi operator either for the better or for the worst. Either way it goes, it will be met with the most equal match.