South Africans love their Toyotas. Reliability is everything in such a vast, dangerous and empty landscape. However this particular Toyota is feared and loathed by anyone not at the wheel.

It is of course the Hiace, and it’s the favoured tool of South Africa’s criminally-run minibus taxi companies, who – much like the drug cartels of South America – are at war over territory, regularly killing one another in order to expand or protect their business interests.

Ageing, dangerously maintained, and wildly overloaded Hiaces make up the majority of the taxi fleets, and almost all are driven with a suicidal abandon that ensures the road ahead of them is quickly cleared.

This 1979 example typical of South Africa’s most dangerous vehicle comes from Flickr builder and regular bloggee Senator Chinchilla, and you can see more (from a safe distance) at his photostream – click the link to make the jump.