Cellphone app to enhance taxi safety

Durban - Following the kidnapping and burning to death of Taxify driver, Siyabonga Ngcobo, in Sunnyside last month, the e-hailing service has teamed up with Namola to launch an emergency button to address safety and security.

At the weekend, anti-crime activist and Namola chief ambassador Yusuf Abramjee said that the launch was prompted by the 21-year old’s brutal death.

“We were asked by Taxify to assist with safety measures for their drivers and commuters.

“When drivers press the emergency button, we guarantee a callback within 90 seconds,” Abramjee said. Fourth-year Tshwane University of Technology student Ngcobo, of Inanda outside Durban, was found burnt inside the boot of a Chevrolet Aveo in Sunnyside.

Speculation was that metered-taxi drivers had carried out the killing, although they denied this.

Abramjee said that Namola, the emergency mobile application, was the fastest of its kind in the country with more more than 150000 downloads.

It had already contributed to making the country a safer place to live in since its introduction in November last year, he said.

The new public safety feature was launched during a Taxify Driver Safety Summit held last Wednesday as a pilot project. Plans are afoot to roll it out to all drivers by the end of this month.

“Rider and driver safety is our priority. The safety button will allow Taxify drivers to access rapid deployment of the correct emergency response,” said Taxify’s Gareth Taylor.

The Mercury