By Buziwe Nocuze
- Zimasa Nyakombi sells meals and coffee to taxi drivers at Site C in Khayelitsha but says the cashless system means drivers will only have money at month end and will stop buying daily.
- Nyakombi says she will have to let three of her four workers go and warns that boys who earn R3 sweeping taxis will turn to crime when the cash disappears.
Zimasa Nyakombi arrives at the Site C taxi rank in Khayelitsha at 06:00 every morning. She has four people helping her. She feeds six family members. She pays R680 a month for her child’s school transport. On 1 June, she says, it all falls apart.
The taxi association is introducing a cashless payment system at the rank. Passengers will pay by card. Taxi drivers will no longer carry cash through the day.
For Zimasa, that is the end of her customer base.
“Taxi drivers are our biggest supporters. We can feed our families because of them,” she said. “With this cashless system it means they will have money month end just like most people.”
Right now, drivers buy coffee and tea from her after 06:00 and a full meal around 10:30. A plate costs R60. Breakfast runs R40 to R50. Vetkoek goes for R8, a sandwich for R17, tea and juice for R10 each.
But the squeeze was already there before the cashless system arrived. The cost of everything she uses to cook has gone up. Paraffin and gas have doubled.
“We were still thinking about increasing our prices but with a cashless system how are we going to do that because we won’t have customers,” she said.
She will have no choice but to let three of her four workers go. She cannot pay them without income.
And then there are the boys at the bottom.
At Site C, boys earn R3 for every taxi they sweep. It is not much. But it is what they have. When the cash stops moving through the rank, that R3 disappears too.
“As soon as they don’t get the job they will go and rob people,” Zimasa said.
She is not predicting crime. She is describing what she sees every day and what she knows comes next.
Pictured above: Hawkers at the Site C taxi rank in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, are concerned about the cashless payment system the taxi association is introducing from 1 June 2026.
Image source: Buziwe Nocuze
