Justicia Shipena
The government is engaging the office of the attorney general on what legal route to take to hold e-hailing companies accountable for allowing illegal operators on their platforms.
Works and Transport minister Veikko Nekundi revealed this in the National Assembly on Thursday while responding to questions from Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) member of parliament Nelson Kalangula about compliance by e-hailing drivers with Namibian transport laws.
Nekundi said the Ministry of Works and Transport conducted inspections at the Windhoek offices of Yango to determine whether drivers on the platform comply with Namibian regulations.
“It follows that the Ministry of Works and Transport officials undertook visits to the Yango office in Windhoek, cognisant that Yango is an international company and it is an operating platform in Namibia, to verify if the operators on Yango comply with Namibian laws,” Nekundi said.
He said officials could not conduct a full inspection because the company did not have a proper registry of drivers.
“However, there was no registry at Yango for comprehensive inspection, except for bits and pieces of information that were provided as hard copies,” he said.
Nekundi said the ministry also faced difficulties verifying claims that about 1 500 drivers had been removed from the platform.
“The team further faced the challenge in ascertaining and authenticating the purported 1 500 blocked drivers from the platform,” he said.
Nekundi reported in October that the Yango platform had blocked over 1 500 vehicles operating without proper licences and documents after the deadline.
He added that officials were not given access to the company’s digital platform and had to rely only on printed information.
“The ministry’s officials have not accessed any Yango platform system, apart from only being provided with hard copies as indicated, containing the information of so-called deregistered operators, which we could not verify ourselves, nor could they verify,” he said.
Nekundi said the government is not opposed to e-hailing services but will not allow companies to ignore Namibian law.
“We must make it clear we are not against e-hailing service providers’ companies. However, we shall not ignore when our laws passed by this very House are being ignored, not respected and not adhered to. And on that we shall not compromise,” he said.
The minister told parliament that he recently met representatives of Yango to discuss the issue of illegal operators.
During the meeting, ministry officials tested the platform by requesting rides through the app while company representatives were present.
“We locked on their app in their presence… We called ten of them in their presence. All of them who came there were illegally operated on,” he said.
Nekundi said the government is exploring legal options while also working on new legislation to regulate the sector.
“We are involving the attorney general. What legal route can we take, as well as the Ministry of ICT being the enabler of this platform to operate in Namibia?” he said.
The ministry is also finalising the Public Passenger Transport Bill, which aims to modernise Namibia’s public transport system and regulate e-hailing services.
Yango entered the Namibian market in 2022 and has expanded its services to the northern regions and the coast. The platform offers app-based ride services with real-time tracking and different pricing options.
In May last year, Nekundi said Yango was operating illegally in Windhoek because it did not have the required permits under Namibia’s public passenger transport laws.
In July, the minister gave e-hailing companies until 30 September to remove unlicensed drivers or risk being labelled facilitators of illegal operations. The warning applied to Yango, InDrive, Lefa and other platforms.
Nekundi said the government’s aim is to promote safety, accountability and fair competition in the transport industry.
