Night in London by Casey Christie

Author:Casey Christie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781521097540
Publisher: Independently published
Published: 2017-04-18T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The Black Bastards were on patrol driving down Louis Botha Avenue in Highlands North. They were surrounded by dozens of civilian vehicles, mainly mini bus taxis. The mini bus taxi industry in South Africa is a multibillion Rand business and the taxis carry over 60% of South Africa’s commuters. Generally the passengers of these minibus taxis, known to most white South Africans as “Black Taxis”, cater for the poorer black citizens of the country. People who can afford to, mostly whites, drive their own private vehicles and would never consider riding in a minibus taxi. The most common type of minibus taxi is the 16-seater kombi bus, although designed for a maximum of 16 passengers it was a regular occurrence to see these kombis heavily overloaded with more than 20 people.

The Black Bastards had once pulled an unroadworthy taxi off the road and unloaded the occupants-they counted 28 passengers in the vehicle that day including two infants. And instead of a proper gear lever to change gears there was a wrench in its place, the steering wheel had been replaced by a bicycle tyre frame and steel pole. Most taxis on the road in South Africa are almost certainly not roadworthy.

The taxi drivers are ultra-aggressive and flagrantly disobey the law. They hoot incessantly trying to attract customers standing or walking at the side of the road and bully the smaller private vehicles on the road - often off it - and driving in a way that would lead to a jail sentence in most European countries. And due to an effectively unregulated market and the fierceness of competition for passengers and lucrative routes, taxi operators band together to form associations. These associations are more like mafia organisations and have been raging a bloody taxi war since the late 1980s, often hiring professional hit men to assassinate rival operators and often engaging in all out gang warfare, AK47 against AK47. They only occasionally behave themselves and observe the rules of the road when a police vehicle is near or within eyesight. The Beast was well known to many of the local taxi drivers in the area and the majority of them waved, or saluted Night and his crew as they drove by.

“Sho, sho, sho, that’s amazing hey!” said Dlamini.

“What is amazing Dlamini?” asked Stanislov.

“That the taxi drivers are driving normally when we are near and some of them are even saluting or saying hello, sho, sho, sho, ay man it is cool being a cop hey? Even the baddest gangsters in SA respect us!”

“Yeah right Dlamini. Absolutely. You’ll learn” said Stanislov.

Sergeant Night picked up the radio. “Control November Whisky 50 Zero One.”

“Go ahead November Whisky 50.”

“Thank you Control. Driver, Constable Daniel Shaka, Force Number, Three, Two, Seven, Nine, Zero, Three, Zero, Dash, Seven. I repeat Three, Two, Seven, Nine, Zero, Three, Zero, Dash, Seven. Crew, Sergeant Michael Night, Force Number Two, One, Seven, Nine, Six, Three, Zero, Dash, Seven. I repeat Two, One, Seven, Nine, Six, Three, Zero, Dash, Seven.

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