Update: Taxify has responded to our request for comment, and issued the following statement.
It told Memeburn that it takes these incidents “very seriously”.
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“Safety of both our riders and driver-partners is our priority. Our team has contacted both parties involved in the incident. Unfortunately, it is a complicated word against word situation as the driver’s part of the story is very different.”
The company also revealed the driver’s side of the argument:
Rider requested a ride, inserted Braamfontein as a destination in the app (this is not a specific address and Taxify team can confirm it was so from the system). They started driving and the rider fell asleep on the backseat. When they reached that region, the driver tried to wake up the rider to ask for a specific address. He then proceeded to tap her from the front seat to wake her up. She woke up with a fright and started claiming that the driver was trying to rape her. The driver said he offered to take the rider to the police station seeing as she claimed he tried to rape her. She refused, telling the driver to take her home. Upon reaching the destination which she had now specified, her boyfriend/ husband was waiting for her. She just got out of the vehicle and went with her boyfriend/husband. No questions asked.
Taxify also noted that the “rider’s clothes had not been removed” nor had the rider “request[ed] any further assistance”.
“When we called the rider and asked if the driver was laying on top of her when she woke up, she said: ‘No, I woke up in time’. This might indicate this was a huge misunderstanding.”
Original article: A Taxify user recounted an incident of alleged attempted rape Tuesday evening after using the service in Sandton, north of Johannesburg.
The user, adopting the handle @_leesi__ on Twitter, took to the social network to retell the events.
“I passed out in the back seat of this man’s cab and woke up to this man on top of me,” her thread begins.
“[H]e kept telling me I was drunk and imagining things”.
@taxify_za I passed out in the back seat of this man’s cab and woke up to this man on top of me pic.twitter.com/8BLKKuSmlb
— PARTYGetsMeWetter (@_Leesi__) September 20, 2017
@taxify_za he kept telling me I was drunk and imagining things pic.twitter.com/8WEqxcwHfr
— PARTYGetsMeWetter (@_Leesi__) September 20, 2017
“I’m still so shook. If I didn’t wake up on time, Lord knows what could’ve happened,” she adds.
I’m still so shook. If I didn’t wake up on time, Lord knows what could’ve happened https://t.co/c5VGEm68OK
— PARTYGetsMeWetter (@_Leesi__) September 20, 2017
She didn’t mention her pick up and drop off locations, but did share a map with the driver’s name, car and rating.
The Estonian company had reached out to the user on Twitter, suggesting that the incident is “unacceptable”.
“Please DM the email address linked to your account as well as the drivers name we would like to look into this ASAP (sic),” it added.
Hi, this is unacceptable.Please DM the email address linked to your account as well as the drivers name we would like to look into this ASAP
— Taxify South Africa (@taxify_za) September 20, 2017
@_leesi__ also noted that she had reported the driver, but the driver himself has lodged a complaint against her.
Now he’s apparently gonna lay charges for defamation of character. Nice *smh
— PARTYGetsMeWetter (@_Leesi__) September 20, 2017
This isn’t the first incident of alleged sexual assault noted against an on-demand taxi service operator.
In June 2017, a UCT student was allegedly assaulted by an Uber driver after she requested the driver drop her off before her stop. She also noted that SAPS threatened her and her friends.
We’ve reached out to Taxify South Africa for further comment.
