{"id":163567,"date":"2017-03-10T13:28:37","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T11:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=163567"},"modified":"2017-03-10T13:30:10","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T11:30:10","slug":"uber-sa-protests-only-underline-why-people-choose-safer-alternatives-like-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/163567\/uber-sa-protests-only-underline-why-people-choose-safer-alternatives-like-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber SA: &#8216;Protests only underline why people choose safer alternatives like us&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alon Lits, GM for Sub Saharan Africa at Uber, has issued an official statement in attempt to bring calm to the ongoing taxi protests.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday (10 March) metered taxi drivers blocked off roads near the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, in protest against the app based taxi service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUber is killing us,\u201d metered taxi driver Abner Mashikinoya told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/we-are-being-intimidated-uber-driver-20170310\" target=\"_blank\">News24<\/a>. \u201cUber\u2026 came here to kill the industry. We can\u2019t even take our children to school. It\u2019s enough. We are tired and we are angry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mashikinoya said metered taxi drivers were planning to partner with minibus taxi drivers to get government\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are forced to partner with taxis. Government fears them, not us. They do not want to talk to us. They know Uber is illegal but have done nothing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, Uber drivers blocked roads around the company\u2019s offices in Parktown North on Friday, also in protest. They have accused the company of not doing anything to address safety issues, following numerous attacks and intimidation.<\/p>\n<p>Lits said in a written statement on Friday: &#8220;Our technology is open and pro-choice and we are keen to offer it to a broad number of taxi drivers to boost their chances for profit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In fact many metered taxi drivers are already using our technology to boost their incomes and we would welcome more who wish to join their colleagues. We do not feel that it should be about Uber or Taxi but rather Uber and Taxi.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Threats and intimidation against those who want to use Uber to boost their income is unacceptable. Today\u2019s protest only underlines why people are increasingly choosing safe, reliable alternatives like Uber.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Safety, reliability, innovation and choice are why the people of Johannesburg are choosing Uber\u2019s world-class digital technology,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/163557\/uber-is-killing-us-metered-taxi-driver\/\" target=\"_blank\">We are being intimidated \u2013 Uber driver<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alon Lits, Uber General Manager for Sub Saharan Africa has issued an official statement in attempt to calm down ongoing metred taxi protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":115698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-163567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-active"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163567"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163597,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163567\/revisions\/163597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}