South African anti-Uber app Shesha has few takers

In July, Progress, a second-hand clothes dealer, got off his bus at Pretoria’s main train station. The night was dark and he knew that a violent attack posed a serious risk in the South African capital.

Walking to his destination in a college suburb about 10 kilometers (1 mile = 1.6 kilometers) away was not an option. It would be safer, he thought, to call a ride-sharing service. He opened the Bolt app and entered his location.

His phone rang. A driver had accepted the ride request. Then its screen showed a message from the driver: “Walk to Minnaar Street. If I come looking for you there, I will be ambushed by the Shesha app thugs.

Shesha is a ride-hailing company launched in South Africa in May as an impartial local competitor to Western companies Uber and Bolt. However, just five months later, according to local media as well as Rest of the worldIt is After interviews with drivers and union leaders, Shesha gained an ugly reputation for using intimidation to coerce drivers and passengers to join her app.

Shesha was created by two traditional South African minibus driver unions: the National Taxi Council of South Africa (Santaco) and the National Taxi Alliance (NTA). “Shesha” means “hurry up” in Zulu.

“The Shesha app is an indigenous email application created to resolve the historic conflict between the taxi industry and Bolt/Uber, who currently dominate the sector,” said NTA spokesperson Theo Malele. Rest of the world.

The South African e-mobility market is expected to reach $443 million by 2029, an annual growth rate of 5.26%, according to Statista. Uber, present in South Africa since 2013, is the country’s leading ride-sharing service, with 2.1 million active users.

While Uber and Bolt have created jobs across South Africa, these companies have also contributed to the decline of the country’s metered taxi and minibus taxi sector. In 2021, the South African Competition Commission found that ride-hailing companies had cut prices by up to 250%, driving former taxi drivers out of business and losing ownership of their vehicles.

“The rapid expansion of email platforms is unfair,” Malele said.

When it launched, Shesha announced that 3,000 people had signed up to drive on the platform. The company has promised to allocate 10% of its shares to a drivers’ trust for medical aid, pensions and provident funds. The app also included a fingerprint identification system to filter out fake profiles and criminal backgrounds – a desirable move in South Africa, where there have been cases of Uber and Bolt drivers stealing, raping and killing passengers. However, the contingency funds have not materialized and the fingerprint identification system is not fully functional, according to drivers who have tried to switch to the app.

To win over riders, taxi unions have resorted to violence, Uber and Bolt drivers said. Rest of the world. Over the past five months, groups of people working for the Shesha app, who call themselves “taxi patrollers,” have illegally zoned large sections of city streets, including transportation hubs like Bosman Station of Pretoria, to exclude Uber and Bolt drivers. Rideshare drivers have posted on Facebook and WhatsApp groups about patrol officers stopping their cars, forcing them to download the Shesha app, grouping passengers into minibus taxis, and demanding payments of R3,000 to R6,000 (172 at 340 dollars) to return the cars.

Ruth Castel-Branco, a labor sociologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said: Rest of the world that Shesha’s alleged tactics could mimic a cartel style of organization, “which is what the taxi industry historically was.” And that was, in many ways, broken through through these apps, Uber and Bolt.

“Minibus taxi unions are a law unto themselves. They have armed weapons,” said Bamuza Dlomo, a Bolt driver. Rest of the world. He said his Honda Fit was seized by Shesha patrol officers last month while he was picking up a passenger near Bosman station.

Shesha’s aggressive tactics to intimidate the competition prove bad for business.

“The app has no passengers,” said Hardy Lungile, a driver in Johannesburg. Rest of the world. He said that when he tried to drive for Shesha, he only managed to make 30 trips in a week. According to Lungile and other drivers, the application’s UI crashes periodically. On the Google Play Store, the app has only 10,000 downloads and a rating of 1.9 out of 5.

“Every app has its own drawbacks, this one is even worse. Victimizing drivers into working with an app that has no customers,” one critic said.

“Not safe and friendly. They ask the driver for money if they find you using Bolt or Uber. They are scavengers and need to be eliminated ASAP,” another reviewer wrote.

Henry Mathebula, president of the South Africa E-Hailing Partners Council, a non-profit advocacy organization, confirmed the Shesha patrol officers’ stories. “We have received such reports – it has happened,” he said. Rest of the world.

“They are conducting illegal roadblocks in certain neighborhoods and stopping any car suspected of being Uber (or) Bolt to ask, ‘Do you have the Shesha app?’ and say, ‘You are not allowed here, this is a Shesha district,'” he said.

Mathebula said he had received five official reports of violence against Uber and Bolt drivers committed by Shesha patrol officers. However, the number of unofficial reports he has seen circulating in the council’s Whatsapp groups is much higher, exceeding 50. In July, Zwelinzima Vavi, president of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, demanded that patrol officers of Shesha stop harassing Uber and Bolt. drivers.

Santaco has denied any association with violence and harassment, while stating that it would investigate such incidents. Spokeswoman Rebecca Phala said Rest of the world as impostors, criminals and wayward taxi drivers claim to be Shesha’s vigilantes. The company is implementing internal disciplinary measures, she said, but did not provide further details.

“These actions are not sanctioned by Shesha as a company. Shesha’s goal is to enter the market and grow organically,” Phala said.

Bolt has not confirmed reports of harassment against its drivers, citing privacy reasons. Uber did not respond to requests for comment.

The E-Hailing Partners Council reported the violence to the Gauteng provincial police, but “little was done,” Mathebula said.

“There are rumors that some of these police chiefs own fleets of minibus taxis,” he said. Last year, South African police commanders issued a public warning to law enforcement officers who moonlight as taxi owners, which is prohibited. Athlenda Mathe, spokesperson for the South African National Police, and Mavela Masondo, spokesperson for the Gauteng provincial police, did not provide a statement to Rest of the world.