Ben Maredi is the new national president of the Federation for long and local distance taxi association (FELLDTA) after a special sitting of the executive committee elected him to the position recently.
He is the present chairman of the Mamelodi Amalgamated Taxi Association (Mata) and deputy president of FELLDTA in Gauteng as well as Tswhane GNTA deputy chairperson.
His endorsement was passed by the management committee (Manco) after a reported deliberation among members. He replaces late Dusty Madalane, who died in December last year after being shot in his Mpumalanga area of Dwarsloop, Bushbuckridge. Maredi said during an interview at Mata’s offices that his immediate task would be to unite all taxi associations under FELLDTA, indicating that some associations were not working well within the structure. That, said Maredi, has to be corrected.
“I must ensure that some of the associations address some of the challenges they have had in the past years. You see, there are still associations that still complain that they have problems that still need to be addressed, and we should attend to that,” he said.
Maredi feels that FELLDTA now as a whole should retain the respect and discipline among all members across structures as that would ensure everyone works towards one common goal of rebuilding the organization.
“It will be unfair of us as an executive not to listen to all the concerns that our members may have as they complain that they have been having these issues for quite some time,” said Maredi, adding that trust among the executive members within FELLDTA was important if they were to take the taxi body forward.
