Taxi industry shoots down S Africa's public transport plans - Feature

Johannesburg- Alex Mabizela is a poster boy for the lawless world of South African minibus taxis. Standing outside a taxi rank in central Johannesburg, amid drivers soaping down their cars and hawkers roasting corn on the cob on makeshift grills, he cuts a hapless figure, with his tattered shirt and mobile phone dangling from a cord around his neck.
Then you notice his chest-high sjambok, the traditional whip made of hippopotamus hide, he uses in confrontations with other drivers.
"When you start to talk you start to fight. You have a sjambok like this, you are going to hit some people," he explains. "Guns? Yes, there are also plenty of guns."
From the chapa in Mozambique to Kenya's matatu, the privately- owned 16-seater minibus taxi is the transport of the masses in sub- Saharan Africa, ferrying people to and from townships in the absence of decent rail or bus services.