Open Letter to Santaco: Hands Off E-Hailing, It’s Time to Innovate

By: Noko Maleka – Insight Jozi News

Dear Santaco,

You are the biggest black-owned business in South Africa. From the days of the E20s and Siyayas to today’s Quantums, you have carried the hopes and dreams of black families. You took people to and from work, to schools, to town for groceries, and even across provinces to see their families. You ferried lovers to see each other, fans to stadiums, and communities to churches and funerals. Your taxis became a lifeline that helped black South Africans survive, work, and build.

But let’s be honest: many black people resent you today. You have become a symbol of poverty. You are the reason that, in our society, buying a car is considered the ultimate sign of success — because commuting with you is seen as something one must endure only until they have no choice left.

Your members buy taxis and pay thousands to join your associations, yet never once do they ask the public if they will commit to using those taxis. Still, when people choose alternatives, you react violently — as if South Africans signed a contract to remain your passengers forever.

Here is the truth: South Africans use your taxis reluctantly. They do so because you have not evolved with the times. You have not invested in innovation, in safety, or in dignity. You have not sent young people to study transport dynamics, global trends, or new technologies that could modernize your industry. You are shocked that e-hailing is thriving, yet it is thriving precisely because of your ignorance, arrogance, and violence.

South Africa is becoming a 24-hour economy. People work night shifts, attend late events, and travel at all hours. Yet, your industry still insists on operating as if the country sleeps at 9 p.m. If you did not take someone to work at 10 p.m., why must you insist you should be the only one to bring them back home?

Santaco, your business is stuck in the past. It is a symbol of poverty, not progress. It does not grow, evolve, or innovate. Instead of attacking e-hailing services, you should be learning from them. You should be developing your own apps, your own 24-hour fleets, your own systems that treat commuters with dignity, safety, and respect.

Hands off e-hailing. Compete by innovating, not by intimidating. Compete by offering better service, not by clinging to old models that no longer serve South Africans.

The truth is painful, but it must be said: e-hailing thrives because of your failure. If you want to remain relevant in the future, you must transform your industry. Until then, you will remain not a proud black business, but a reminder of how refusing to evolve kills greatness.

Respectfully,
Noko Maleka
Insight Jozi News