Angolan taxis will raise fares in the coming weeks due to a sharp rise in fuel prices, a move that could trigger protests from impoverished Angolans who rely on thousands of 14-seater taxi vans to go to work each day. The president of Luanda's Taxi Drivers Association, Manuel Faustino, said a rise in cab fares was "inevitable" after the government slashed gasoline subsidies and increased diesel and gasoline prices on Wednesday by up to 50 percent, according to Reuters. "It has been our intention to increase taxi fares for a long time," said Faustino. "This time we will have to do it." Higher transportation costs could hurt thousands of Angolans who depend on the blue-and-white Toyota minivan taxis to go to work and feed inflation in what is already one of the world's most expensive cities. In Mozambique, which borders Angola's eastern neighbour Zambia, six people were killed this week in rioting sparked by rising bread prices. Faustino said taxi prices could increase by as much as 100 percent, although that increase would depend on talks between his association and the government. "People aren't going to accept this. We will protest," said Laurinda da Silva, a maid who pays 200 kwanzas, or about $2, for a return trip in one of the thousands of taxis that clog the streets of Luanda every day. The Angolan government wants to trim annual fuel subsidies, currently around 440 billion kwanzas ($4.8 bln), by an average 20 percent each year and use the money to build new hospitals, schools and to improve the lives of ordinary Angolans. But the gasoline subsidies are seen by many Angolans as one of the few benefits from living in one of Africa's top oil producers. An estimated two-thirds of the population live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank.
