The Department of Transport will probe the allocation of R2 million given to the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) the Saturday Star reported today.

The department gave the council the funds in order to host national road shows to explain the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system to it’s members.

According to the report, this was based on an agreement between Transport minister Jeff Radebe and the industry in December 2008.

However, some Santaco members took part in the protest over BRT in Johannesburg this week.

The report quotes Transport spokesman, Collen Msibi, saying that while the government felt that the money had been used for what it was intended, they would be investigating where the balance had been used.

Meanwhile, Santaco spokesman, Phillip Taaibosch denied that any of the funds had been misused.

“The government didn’t give us money to run BRT for them, we are not a marketing department of the government.

“What we agreed upon was that the government would assist us to go to our structures to consult our members on its plan for BRT,” Taaibosch told the paper.

He said that the umbrella body of taxi associations had started with consultation with their membership in East London and Cape Town and that the R2 million was being used to host workshops on the BRT.

Msibi was not available for comment this afternoon.