Uphill battle for Uber in South Africa

Uber is facing an uphill battle in South Africa as it struggles to address key issues plaguing its business and the e-hailing industry as a whole.

The company made its local debut in the early 2010s and was lauded at the time for its excellent service and professional drivers.

Fast forward to today, and Uber is collapsing in the wake of several problems, from poor driver behaviour to unmaintained cars, apathetic customer support, and safety concerns.

In February 2025, MyBroadband reported on a flood of complaints Uber had received from unhappy customers, which were uploaded to the consumer sentiment website Hello Peter.

The most common grievances cited bad driver conduct, the state of the cars, trips regularly being cancelled, and trip charges that were substantially higher than the originally estimated fare.

TopAuto checked Hello Peter and found that these complaints are still rife on the site several months later, with Uber scoring a consumer trust index of just 1.6 out of 5 stars across more than 4,500 reviews.

The most recent complaints alleged that an Uber deliver driver refused to drop off their package.

When the person opened a case with Uber, the driver contacted the individual to tell them that he would keep the package until he is paid more. This is after the app has already taken payment for the delivery.

Several other reviews criticized the company for payments that couldn’t be explained, such as a weekly R50 deduction from their account.

Another complained that their trip was advertised at R157, only for R167 to be taken from their account.

A third person said they paid for their trip in cash, only for the driver to report them for not receiving payment, blocking them from the app by doing so.

There have also been more serious allegations of operators engaging in dangerous driving behaviour, or acting hostile towards their passengers.

Well-known radio presenter Anele Mdoda previously alleged a Nigerian Uber driver had warned her that people in his country raped women to “teach them a lesson” after he became upset she had chosen the option for the driver not to speak to their passenger.

Uber has responded to past allegations, stating that the issues are often blown out of proportion.

“If you consider that we have 1.4 million users on our platform and that that number has risen by 66% over the past two years, 3,000 complaints on Hello Peter are just a drop in the bucket,” Cassie Jaganyi, head of communications at Uber South Africa, said in feedback to the newspaper Rapport.

Jaganyi added that the company is aware of these issues, and that it has taken action in cases where its drivers were in the wrong.

It was also stated that many of the reported issues often stem from misunderstandings where individuals do not understand how the app works.

However, it should be noted that many of the complaints on Hello Peter and other platforms often claim that the individual tried to contact Uber’s customer service, but did not receive satisfactory feedback.

Safety concerns

One issue that plagues Uber and other e-hailing apps in South Africa is the threat of violence, often from minibus taxi operators and similar services that claim the apps are stealing their business.

This has erupted into violent altercations in the past, including an event in Soweto a few years ago when several e-hailing vehicles were torched outside a mall.

The issue has become so prevalent that Uber drivers will often refuse to pick up or drop off riders in certain areas.

A MyBroadband writer recently shared his experience of using public transport to get to Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria to watch the rugby, including Uber and the Gautrain.

Upon arrival at the Gautrain station near the stadium, the individual went outside to order an Uber, but was instructed by a security guard to use their phone inside the premises, as thieves have been known to snatch phones right out of peoples’ hands.

After ordering an Uber, the writer received a message from the driver saying he would not pick them up there, despite having just dropped off another passenger.

The security guard explained that this was common practice, as e-hailing drivers are scared of being attacked at public transport hubs.

The driver said he would call them to make a plan, but this never happened, and the person was forced to cancel the order and pay Uber’s cancellation fee.