Using public transport is a struggle for people with disabilities. People who depend on wheelchairs and other assistive devices say they often wait for hours because many taxis don’t stop to pick them up. Others say they are charged an additional fee for their wheelchairs.
Even when they do manage to get a taxi, people with disabilities face additional challenges. They have to navigate long distances using wheelchairs or crutches in busy city environments.
“We often become victims of crime if we have to walk long distances from the Pinetown CBD, which sometimes forces us to seek help from others to reach our intended facilities after disembarking from the taxi,” says wheelchair user Hlengiwe Mngadi from KwaNyuswa west of Durban.
Instead of just complaining about this state of affairs, Mngadi took action. Through Siyaphambili Manyuswa Disabled Organisation, which she founded in 2021, Mngadi approached the local taxi association to assist people with disabilities in the area.
“The feedback from taxi drivers and owners about our request was very supportive,” she tells Health-e News.
For the past six months, the Qadi-Nyuswa Taxi Association, which operates routes in the west of Durban between Maqadini and KwaNyuswa to Hillcrest, Pinetown, Durban, and Camperdown, has implemented a new system. Drivers now take passengers with disabilities directly to government facilities such as SASSA and the post office in Pinetown.
How the system works
Previously, taxi drivers would drop passengers with disabilities off in the Pinetown CBD along with other passengers. If they needed to travel further, they were required to pay extra or hire someone to assist them across busy roads.
“We received a letter from Siyaphambili Manyuswa Disabled Organisation, requesting assistance in transporting their members to the facilities they need. After reviewing their request, we discussed it with our committee and agreed to support them,” Buzanani Zungu, known as Manzini in the taxi industry and a training officer for the Qadi-Nyuswa Taxi Association, tells Health-e News.
Manzini explains that once passengers with disabilities complete their visits to these facilities, passengers notify the driver by calling either their driver directly or the rank manager so that their return trip can be arranged.
Sbusiso Zulu, who has over 25 years of experience as a taxi driver for the Qadi-Nyuswa Taxi Association, shared insights about how people are benefiting from the current transport arrangement.
“This system not only assists people with disabilities to reach facilities and offices located more than 1.8 km away in Pinetown, but it also benefits the elderly and pregnant women,” he says. Zulu explains that elderly passengers often request to be dropped off at the entrances of their destinations as well due to their inability to walk long distances. Pregnant women frequently ask to be dropped off at the clinic gates.
Commuters’ experiences
Bathobile Gwala from KwaNyuswa says she was not aware of the new transport arrangement until early August when she took a taxi to Pinetown. Seeing that she was using a wheelchair, the taxi driver offered to take her straight to the SASSA office gate after all the other passengers had exited the taxi.
But this must go further, says Gwala.
Taxi owners and drivers should find a way for wheelchair users to avoid paying for two passengers when they are travelling alone, as they often have to pay for their wheelchair as well.
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Nolizwi Notshe, a 54-year-old wheelchair user, recounts previous challenges she faced while trying to access clinics or public transport in the Pinetown CBD. She often had to wait hours for a taxi because many drivers would not stop for passengers with disabilities. However, since the implementation of this new arrangement, she feels a greater sense of respect from drivers and fellow passengers.
Challenges remain
Nevertheless, Nkosinathi Mzila, a 37-year-old user of crutches from KwaNyuswa, says he wasn’t aware of the new system until Health-e informed him. He praised its implementation and promised to share the information with other individuals with disabilities he knows.
Mzila relies on public transport and makes sure to sit at the front next to the driver so he has room to stretch his legs and arrange his crutches comfortably. – Health-e News
