The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) and the National Taxi Alliance (NTA) say government is not taking the industry seriously and that they have decided to take the "the bull by its horns" and go back to loading passengers at 100% capacity from Monday.

In two separate virtual briefings, Santaco and NTA said they were willing to engage with government through Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, who had been postponing meeting with them multiple times.

The operators had presented four issues to Mbalula, including the relief fund, 100% loading capacity, long-distance operations and taxi fares.

"Since we have been waiting in vain, the leadership last night made the following decision: we have decided that leadership of Santaco provinces must inform their structures that, as of from tomorrow the 29th, all taxis must load 100% capacity, whether the minister approves or not...

"All long-distance taxis must resume operations as from tomorrow morning.

ALSO READ | National command council to convene before Mbalula engages taxi industry

NTA general secretary Alpheus Mlalazi said they were unhappy that aircraft were able to travel inter-provincially, while taxis were not, adding that they viewed this as discrimination.