Safety vs. Convenience: A Traveler’s Dilemma in Cape Town’s Taxi Landscape

The bus ride from Durban to Cape Town took 26 hours instead of the promised 23,5 hours. The last two hours were excruciating! My mind was so set on arriving at a specific time so when I realised we were delayed, every minute felt like an hour. When I finally arrived at the bus station in Cape Town no Uber nor Bolt (online taxi apps) would to take my request. It surprised me at first since Cape Town is a huge city with many, many people working for these companies. Then I recalled how it was the last time I was in South Africa back in 2017-2018. There were huge tensions between the online taxi app drivers and the metered taxi drivers. The metered taxistas felt overrun by the online apps and their low prices, a common feeling in many countries where online taxi services completely changed the market by being more accessible as well as cheaper. Back then it led to such violent encounters resulting in beatings, torching and even murder. The violence was closely intertwined and fueled by Xenophobia, the fear, hatred and prejudice against foreigners, a huge problem in South Africa.

Today, the tension between the two parties has calmed down but it has left its traces. After a few attempts of trying to hail an online taxi, I surrender and grab a metered taxi. We argue about the price and eventually, being exhausted after such a long journey, I accept the standard price even though my destination was less than five minutes away. Personally, I feel safer using the online taxi apps since I can share my location with my friends, but also because I know there is an online record of my journey. If I, God forbid, was to get kidnaped, robbed or otherwise damaged, I know that my ride, the car and driver are registered. It might not help me in that specific moment but at least it creates a feeling of security.

This is not a security strategy I developed while traveling, rather it is something I felt normal to do as a precaution in Sweden, my home country. I tried asking my grumpy but kind taxi driver about the current situation between metered and online taxistas. He says that it is better now as everyone has agreed upon their ‘territory’. The bus and train stations, for example, belong to the metered taxis while home pickups are better suited for online taxis. He makes it seem like it’s all harmonious now, I wonder if it’s true.