Place ballet in a South African minibus taxi rank

Abstract

Minibus taxis are a ubiquitous and popular form of public transportation in South Africa whose movements are distinguished by their fluidity, flexibility and the relative lack of traditional moorings (Hannam, Sheller, & Urry, 2006 ) that mediate other forms of public transportation. The temporalities and operating practices of minibus taxis in Cape Town require that the vehicles and their drivers wait for passenger demand to re-activate their mobility from a stand-by mode to an active one. In the moments before re-activation, drivers and their vehicles are suspended in an animated stillness that is not neutral, but rather characterised by choreographed rhythms and dynamic place-making ( Seamon, 1979 ; Mels, 2004 ). This animated stillness takes place in taxi ranks that are managed and mediated by taxi bosses, passenger flows and driver intentions, amongst others. Through an ethnographic study of the Mowbray taxi rank – a vibrant mobility interchange in Cape Town – this chapter intends to understand the complicated place ballet that results from the unique mobility practice of minibus taxi transportation services in South Africa. At the same time, this chapter highlights the roles and subjectivities of informal transport workers amongst others in the taxi rank who serve as central characters in the place ballet. Such practices produce a unique space of mobility and heterotopic alliances that reveals the complex nature of the moments in between movement and stillness and the role of informal workers amongst others in the act of place-making, while it also illuminates the precariousness of existence and social agency of its informal workforce.

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