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The term taxi war is usually used to refer to the turf wars fought between taxi associations and individual Minibus taxi drivers in South Africa, from the late 1980's onwards. These taxi wars are still raging to the present day.

The multi-billion rand minibus taxi industry carries over 60% of South Africa's commuters. The industry is almost entirely made up of 16-seater commuter kombi busses which are, more often than not, unsafe or not roadworthy. Minibus taxi drivers are well known for their disregard for the road rules and their proclivity for dangerously overloading their vehicles with passengers.

The industry flourishes because apartheid forced black people to live in townships far away from the major business centers. So, in order to work in the cities, black people had to make use of public transport. The high demand combined with the unregulated nature of the industry lends itself to criminal activity.

Due to an effectively unregulated market and the fierceness of competition for passengers and lucrative routes, taxi operators band together to form local and national associations. These associations soon exhibited mafia-like tactics, including the hiring of hit-men and all-out gang warfare. These associations also engaged in anti-competitive price fixing. During the height of the conflict, it was not uncommon for taxi drivers to carry shotguns and AK-47's to simply shoot rival taxi drivers and their passengers on sight.

Causes
Prior to 1987, the taxi industry was highly regulated and controlled. Black taxi operators were almost certainly declined permits in this apartheid era and all Minibus taxi operations were, by their very nature, illegal. Post 1987, the industry was rapidly deregulated, leading to an influx of new Minibus taxi operators, keen to make money off the high demand for this service. Because the industry was largely unregulated and the official regulating bodies so corrupt, the industry quickly became criminal in nature.

The economic drivers for the wars were intertwined with political unrest around the time of the fall of apartheid in 1994. Commuters were often the target of political violence not necessarily related to the taxi industry itself. Often, the warring factions involved were from opposing political parties such as the IFP and ANC. In the years leading up to the abolishment of apartheid, the government is believed to have actively encouraged this violence so as to destabilize its political opposition. For example, in 1998, 13 police officers were charged with complicity in taxi violence.

Pre 1977 (State owned monopoly)
The Motor Carrier Transportation Act of 1930 prohibited transportation of goods / passengers by road for profit without a permit from the Local Road Transportation Board (LRTB). The transport industry was essentially a state monopoly held by the South African Transport Service (SATS).

Taxi owners operating outside the jurisdiction of the LRTB were operating illegally. These taxi operators started banding together into local informal associations.

1977-1987 (Impetus towards deregulation)
Along with growing political pressure, the Soweto Riots of 1976 prompted the then National Party government to form a commission of enquiry into the transport industry. In 1977, the Van Breda Commission of Inquiry recommended freer competition and less regulation in the industry. The commission realized that the transport industry was becoming highly politicized and that it was no longer in the government's best interests to participate in the transport market.

In 1979, the first national association of black taxi drivers was established: The South African Black Taxi Association (SABTA). In the years to come, rival organizations such as South African Long Distance Taxi Association (SALDTA). This body, along with other political bodies at the time, started putting pressure on government to deregulate the industry. Impetus towards a free-market economy grew stronger in the late 80's.

1987-1994 (Deregulation)
The White Paper on Transport Policy, tabled in January 1987, in conjunction with the Transport Deregulation Act of 1988 effectively deregulated the entire taxi industry overnight. Significantly, making minibus taxis legal. This change gave birth to the taxi industry as it exists in its current form. The permit issuing process was rife with corruption, permits were essentially given away to favored applicants. For all intents and purposes, there was no control whatsoever.

In the absence of official controls, the now growing taxi organizations started to flex their muscles, using their influence to make more money, to intimidate the opposition. The authorities did little or nothing to stop the violence.

1994-1999 (Post apartheid)
In contrast to expectations, the violence intensified after the fall of apartheid.

In 1995, the government established the the National Taxi Task Team (NTTT) to arrive at a solution to the taxi violence. In 1996 the NTTT's first report recommended the immediate re-regulation of the taxi industry.

The government's attempts at re-regulation were actively resisted by the now extremely powerful "mother" organizations which controlled the taxi industry, this led to an escalation of violence between 1998 and 1999.

1999-Present (Recapitalization)
The government intended The National Land Transport Transition Act, Act No 22 of 2000 to help formalize and re-regulate the now out-of-control taxi industry. Along with new legislation, the government instituted a 4 year re-capitalisation scheme in the same year. The intention of this scheme was to replace the 15-seater minibuses with 18 and 35-seater minibuses. There have been a number of delays in this process. Firstly, the government has been waiting for the taxi industry to form one cohesive association that can speak on behalf of taxi owners, secondly, there is a lot of disagreement from taxi owners as to the nature that the re-capitalization scheme should take.

One major sticking point is the possibility of job losses caused by the uptake of the larger busses. The government attempted to do research into the extent of the prospective job losses in 2000, but the research team was threatened and research was abandoned

In 2004, the minister of transport released a revised recapitalization timeline which was scheduled to start in 2005/6 and end 7 years later. At time of writing, the TRP had started, though was plagued by delays.

According to the Transport Department 1 400 old and unsafe taxis have been scrapped, with 80% of the taxi fleet expected to be recapitalized by the 2009/10 financial year.