SANAC has been weaving among the queues of passengers at KwaZulu-Natal’s busiest taxi ranks as part of a new partnership with the taxi industry.
South Africa’s National Taxi Council (SANTACO) has partnered with SANAC, SA Taxi and the Department of Health to drive the HIV response in the taxi industry.
Minibus taxi drivers are the cornerstone of public transport in South Africa. Although they provide a much needed service to a staggering 19 million commuters every day, their dangerous driving has given them a bad reputation and made it difficult to reach them with HIV services.
Low levels of HIV knowledge and long hours on the road have made taxi drivers a group long recognised as particularly vulnerable to HIV. However, not much is known about HIV prevalence in this group. But this new partnership kicked off by bringing HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) services and health and lifestyle disease screening to taxi ranks.
The partnership was launched during Transport Month in October, where mobile clinics were stationed for three days at Pietermaritzburg’s Market Square taxi rank, Durban Central and at the Umlazi and Kwa-Mashu ranks, offering minibus taxi drivers, rank marshals, operators, and commuters free testing for HIV as well as other lifestyle diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
SANTACO CEO Phillip Taaibosch welcomed the partnership with SANAC, and described it as long overdue. “We have been waiting for this for a very long time,” he said.
Taxi industry leaders have now committed to spearhead a range of initiatives to keep taxi drivers healthy, to be able to better serve their passengers. At the same time, passengers will also be empowered with information and easy access to free health tests.
Free counselling will be available to everyone who has their health assessed. All test results will be kept confidential and, where necessary or requested, mobile clinic staff will make referrals to local health care providers.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the provincial health department has identified taxi drivers as a key population and since November 2014, mobile clinics have been deployed to the taxi ranks during weekdays. The next step of the SANTACO-led initiative will be to duplicate this model in other provinces.