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As part of their road safety campaign, Toyota Bloemfontein, ABSA Bank, Thabo Matlou Optometrist and Greater Bloemfontein Taxi Association (GBTA) came together in an effort to assist taxi operators to be safer on the road by checking their eyesight and handing out free eye glasses to those who need them.
The campaign started in December 2024, during the festive season whereby over 350 drivers in Bloemfontein were tested, to the surprise of many, they were not aware that they had eyesight problems, moreover, some had high blood pressure that needed immediate medical attention.
On Tuesday, 21 January 2025, the partners issued out the glasses to the drivers, most of whom were happy to have received them.
Mr Lebo Modise, the Sales Executive for Toyota Bloemfontein told The Business Weekly that, they got involved in the project as part of giving back to the taxi industry as their customers. He said they identified a gap in the industry, that taxi drivers have eyesight challenges and they could not just sit back but had to do something about it.
“We created a fund together with ABSA and raised funds for a certain period; after some time, we collaborated with the Doctor to come to Bloemfontein to test our people, it was last year December. We first checked their high blood pressure to check if they really do need glasses, some of them were fine and did not need glasses, but a large number needed glasses and the Doctor made glasses for them and today we are handing over the glasses hence we are here as Toyota because we are partners,” said Modise
Kwenzekile Ntolwana, the PRO for GBTA said the programme has not only benefited taxi drivers, but also hawkers at the taxi rank selling food to the drivers, and queue marshals also benefited. He said the Chairperson of GBTA met with Dr Matlou last year where they discussed what they can do for taxi drivers, they agreed on the eye tests which were done in December and were now handing over spectacles to the drivers.
“Taxi drivers were not aware that they have eyesight problems, what is worse is that some of them were surprised that they have high blood pressure. The Dr even told us that our pupils are dark because of the heat and sun exposure, he advised us to wear sun glasses when we are out in the sun; we didn’t even know that,” said Ntolwana.
Ntolwana said more than 350 people were tested over a two days period in December 2024, and the sponsors of the initiative Toyota and ABSA carried the costs of the eye glasses, of which each set costs R3200.
Dr Thabo Matlou, a philanthropist himself, confirmed that he is in partnership with Toyota and ABSA in the great work of helping taxi drivers get tested and receive eye glasses. He said in most cases, taxi drivers cannot afford to buy eye glasses, this is where Toyota and ABSA comes in, to fund the glasses so that both the driver and passengers can be safe on the road; including other road users.
During the eye tests, Matlou said he found that most of the taxi driver cannot really see properly.
“We see this intervention as a good thing and as a way of social responsibility for all of us, especially the companies that are sponsoring the initiative. Our role is just to help our country really, especially because we can see the accidents that are happening out there.
After we did our testing, we realised that poor eyesight is one of the contributing factors to these car accidents,” said Dr Thabo Matlou.
Dr Matlou said 50% of all the drivers tested needed spectacles, which is really bad. He said this is mainly due to age, once one turns 40 years, eyesight begins to deteriorate and most of the taxi drivers are above 40 years of age.
Concerning as well is that some drivers received their permits even though they cannot see properly, which poses a danger to passengers and road users at large.
Solomon (Sol) Ramajela, the Head of Taxi Finance responsible for building up strategies for taxi finance for ABSA Group, who was present when the spectacles were being handed over to taxi drivers, said ABSA has been involved in this project for years and runs it country wide.
Addressing the the audience present, Ramajela said Taxi ABSA has partnered with Toyota and CFAO Mobility South Africa in this initiative and the taxi industry. He explained how the Bank raised funds for the initiative to assist drivers to get tested and receive eye glasses.
“When a customer comes to CFOA Mobility country wide and buys a taxi, and they are financed by myself as ABSA, there is some money that we put aside and CFOA also puts some money aside to give back to the taxi industry; we can do a lot of things with this money, it is not a lot of money but we decided last year that the best project to be involved in with the fund, is to come back to the taxi industry,” explained Sol Ramajela.
With the fund in place, Ramajela said as part of giving back to the industry, they had to find out if the eyesight of taxi operators is safe to be carrying passengers on the road, they started in Gauteng where they tested over 1000 operators and 70% of them their eyesight was bad, they then moved to Bloemfontein, where they tested just above 350 operators and just over 68% of them their eyesight was bad.
They then moved to the Western Cape, where they also tested over 350 operators and about 58% of them had bad eyesight.
“Obviously we did this in Bloemfontein during the festive season; we wanted to contribute to the ‘Arrive Alive’ campaign that we get involved in with government, with SANTACO and NTA. We have a solid relationship with SANTACO through President Tsebe, and National Taxi Alliance through President Masitsa.
With this one specifically, we have partnered with Dr Matlou, we are testing, when we pick up that an operator cannot see, we are giving spectacles, we are carrying the costs ABSA and CFOA. That is why today we are here, to issue out spectacles,” said Sol Ramajela.
Sol Ramajela told the taxi drivers that they have no intention to stop with the initiative, if the fund continues to grow and their customer database continues to grow, they will continue getting involved in numerous activities, this one being the best one.
Through the fund regarding the road safety campaign, Ramajela said they have spent approximately R1.4 million nationwide and have tested a total of 1711 operators. In February they will be testing taxi operators in the Western Cape.
