Thousands of Gauteng taxi commuters were left stranded on Wednesday morning as taxi owners went on a protest demanding that government deliver on its COVID-19 relief promises. As part of the march taxi associations  handed  over a memorandum of grievances directered to  Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Eye Witness News reported that scores of commuters were left stranded along the N1 North between Johannesburg and Pretoria earlier after a taxi driver abandoned them on the freeway as operators blocked main roads.

Taxi associations marched from the old Putco depot in Marabastad. A number of violent incidents were reported under the #taxistrike as some commuters were forced out of buses in the Tshwane area. 

Speaking to ENCA the spokesperson for the National Taxi Association (NTA), Theo Malele, said "this is not the NTA's policy, to blockade roads and disturb people from going about their economic activity."The Gauteng Traffic Police also condemned some of the protest action in a statement. The police said taxi operators have embarked on acts of intimidation and have "gone on a rampage" leaving commuters stranded.