The mayor of Johannesburg says his administration cannot respond to the rising levels of violence between metered taxi and Uber drivers in the city following a resumption of clashes on Thursday evening.

A metered taxi was reportedly set alight by Uber drivers in an alleged revenge attack after two Uber cars were torched hours earlier in the latest spike in violence that has carried on for many months.

Herman Mashaba, Executive Mayor of Johannesburg sent out a tweet placing the duty to put an end to the violence in the hands a higher level of government as the conflict continued.

"The Uber/Meter taxi matter is unfortunately outside my direct jurisdiction. We hope the Provincial structures will appropriately handle(it)."

Mashaba's view that the city cannot play a direct role in establishing good relations between Uber and metered taxi drivers was immediately countered by other twitter users.

Peter Leon, a lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills and co-chair of its Africa practice questioned the mayor on why he does not see the situation as one that requires the city's intervention.

"While that may be so what is stop(ping) the Johannesburg Metro Police Department from enforcing the law and preventing violence if no one else does so?"

While the national and provincial spheres of government are yet to issue formal details on how they will respond to the latest violent flare ups, a statement from Uber on the night of the attacks indicated that the ride hailing company is aware of the situation and that only one of the vehicles had been confirmed to be using the Uber app.

"We are busy investigating the second vehicle. We are relieved to hear the driver of the first vehicle was not injured, we are reaching out to offer support. On being notified of this incident our operations, security and law enforcement teams immediately reached out to the relevant authorities," according to Uber.

Although opposition to Uber by metered taxi drivers is not unique to Johannesburg, it appears to have quietened down in other cities around the world including Paris and Rome.

Uber announced changes to its ride-hailing process in South Africa last month in an effort to strengthen security for driver partners in the country in the form of a cash indicator feature, which it said would give driver partners the option to reject cash trip requests.

An Uber driver in Johannesburg had been hospitalised a week earlier after he sustained chemical burns to his face following an acid attack by a person alleged to have been a passenger.

A few weeks before that incident another Uber driver from Pretoria died from injuries he sustained after his car was allegedly set alight by metered taxi drivers.