Home » Uber Devastated by Brutal Attack of Driver in Pretoria, Calls on Govt & SAPS to Assist

Uber Devastated by Brutal Attack of Driver in Pretoria, Calls on Govt & SAPS to Assist

Uber says it is devastated to confirm the brutal attack of a driver-partner this past weekend, whose car was set alight while he was in the vehicle. Uber stressed “this sort of violence is completely unacceptable, unlawful and needs to stop”, and called on Government and the South African Police Service (SAPS) to prevent these crimes and […]

By SAPeople
12-06-17 18:05
in Eish!

Uber says it is devastated to confirm the brutal attack of a driver-partner this past weekend, whose car was set alight while he was in the vehicle. Uber stressed “this sort of violence is completely unacceptable, unlawful and needs to stop”, and called on Government and the South African Police Service (SAPS) to prevent these crimes and ensure the criminals are brought to justice.

According to Uber, one of their driver-partners was attacked by a small group of unknown individuals, and sustained serious injuries after the suspects set fire to the driver’s car while he was still in it. He is currently in hospital in a critical condition. Uber has visited him and is in touch with his family.

On Saturday, Uber users had taken to Facebook to complain that Uber was not being proactive about their drivers’ cars being vandalised in South Africa… and was instead deactivating drivers’ vehicles and charging R300 for a driver to seek approval and reactivation again (once they’d fixed their vandalised car at their own expense).

DJ Ricky Hesselberg said “some drivers are not even reporting it anymore to avoid being deactivated and losing even more income” and asked Uber “what steps are being taken to end this madness”.

SAPeople asked Uber for a response, and today Samantha Allenberg, Communications for Uber Africa, issued a media statement.

She said: “This incident is deeply upsetting to all of us at Uber. This driver-partner is a part of our community. We are in contact with his family and we have visited him at the hospital – our thoughts continue to be with him while we do all we can to help with the ongoing investigation to bring his attackers to justice.

“We are working with law enforcement officials to fully support their investigation and we have a team of former law enforcement professionals who are ready to work with and assist the police at anytime during their investigation.”

Uber said “there is no excuse for the violent acts described. We know that these actions do not represent the entire industry, however, this violence and intimidation against those who choose to use the Uber app must stop…

“We understand that there is concern about the impact of Uber and its driver-partners on other operators’ businesses, but as we have said, we are not interested in taking away anyone’s business.

“Our aim is to get people to give up their own personal cars and in a world like that, there is plenty of opportunity for everyone. We have also made it known that we welcome anyone who wants to use the Uber app.” (One of Uber’s missions is to make cities less congested and streets safer from drunk driving.)

“This intimidation, violence and criminal action only does a disservice to every operator in the industry. It is because of behaviour like this that so many people are turning towards using Uber (and other apps) for a safer, more reliable way to move around.”

Uber says it is “deeply committed” to the safety of both riders and driver-partners. Current safety features do include a 24/7 emergency line for drivers. Other features for riders include GPS tracking, ability to share estimated time of arrival with loved ones, and driver detail check.

 

“Our Incident Response Team (IRT) is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to respond immediately to any reported incidents or accidents globally.

“In addition to our standard safety features, we have hired additional security response teams in areas where our driver-partners and riders have reported intimidation.

“While we are doing all we can to assist in preventing incidents and provide assistance to driver-partners and riders, we cannot do this alone – we need more support from the authorities and policy makers to help prevent and condemn these terrible crimes.

“We are now appealing for additional support from the Government and SAPS to assist in both the prevention of these crimes, as well as to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.”