Page A9 in this morning’s Boston Globe contains a very brief article, quoted here in its entirety (there is no byline):

Protest in South Africa

Minibus taxi drivers set fires yesterday during a march in Cape Town against the government’s proposed bus transit upgrade for the World Cup, which the taxi drivers say will cost them revenue.

I fully expected it to continue, “In other news, oil companies threatened to uproot train tracks and sabotage any cars used for carpools.  Electric company officials were also seen breaking into homes known to have installed energy-efficient florescent or LED lighting.”

A South African website called Independent Online covered the event more extensively yesterday, running an article with the absolutely awesome headline “Commuters flee rampaging taxi drivers.”

Taxi drivers blockaded roads and threw stones at Golden Arrow buses and private cars, allegedly in protest against the formation of the city’s new Bus Rapid Transit system, perceived permit inequalities and the taxi recapitalization process.

Then it just goes over the top in insanity:

[Commuter Thembakazi Bizana] said commuters ran for their lives when taxi drivers started throwing stones. “It was chaos out there… I took a cab and they started stoning the cabs also, saying we are not allowed to use any transport.”

This might be the worst protest plan in the history of protests.  First, they stoned cabs as part of their protest to encourage cab use.  Second, better mass transit is a good thing, but they’re opposing it for personal reasons (and that’s a hard sell).  Third, and most importantly, they’ve caused people serious harm.  I know I’d be a lot less inclined to take a cab in Boston if I knew the driver was prone to dragging people from buses and beating them up.