2 sides to MyCiTi road story
COUNCILLOR Brett Herron’s letter, “Bad faith as ANC goes all out to discredit MyCiTi initiative” (Cape Argus, March 17), is once again defensive , misleading and in the “blame and complain” mode so typical of the DA.
He accuses the ANC of “hating” MyCiTi and of “sabotage”. What nonsense. It was the ANC government which initiated the Bus Rapid Transport system as a way of increasing mobility within South African cities. Various iterations of BRT are now either operating or in the planning phases in Joburg, Tshwane, Durban and East London.
It is critical that BRT is introduced after proper consultation with all those affected – the taxi and broader transport industry, communities and commuters as well.
Our concerns relate to the complaints we have received from various taxi owners, drivers and those employed at the ranks who claim that they have been left out of the process. They say that promises made by the city have been broken. These complaints arise from Sea Point, Hout Bay and Atlantis. Commuters in Atlantis have complained that the routes offered by MyCiTi do not provide safe and reliable passage to the various MyCiTi stations in that community. They say they were promised that taxis would continue providing feeder transport but this has not transpired.
These are the issues the ANC has been raising, with the purpose of seeking solutions. The complaints have not been addressed. Serious questions remain about the extent of broad-based black economic empowerment which took place during Phase 1.
Regarding the Wynberg/Plumstead section of the Phase 2 MyCiti roll-out, the DA and the city only have themselves to blame. Instead of actually engaging in genuine dialogue with residents and affected parties, the DA has declared that the South Road and Rosmead/Brodie Road couplet are a “done deal”. This is despite the fact that there has been no public consultation and no costing of the various proposed routes. Consultation was promised in February and we are now almost in April. Community organisations have asked that alternative routes – using Wetton and Broad roads – be considered.
Instead, the city has demolished vacant houses adjoining South Road in an attempt to intimidate the 26 families living in council houses in South Road. This arrogant and destructive path is the clearest indication that the DA is not even prepared to consider alternative proposals. To date the city has been unable to provide costings for South Road and the alternatives proposed.
Herron has tried to demonise tenants by claiming that they owe rentals. He has selectively released certain privileged information. Why does the city not deal with these tenants as it is required to do in terms of normal credit control policy?
As a further indication of the DA’s stubbornness, the city issued a tender in which they ask consultants to consider only the South Road and Brodie Road couplet. In other words, they are not even prepared to investigate and consult about alternative proposals for Wynberg/Plumstead.
Called upon to assist, the ANC has tried to persuade Herron and the DA to place a moratorium on all evictions, arrange for the mayor to speak directly to residents and to set up an inclusive task team to explore the alternatives. All of these proposals have been ignored.
That is why we have called on the national government to suspend all further funding to MyCiTi until these reasonable requests are met.
I give credit to the NCOP for doing what Herron and the DA are refusing to do – listen to community concerns. Herron has used every excuse in the book to refuse to attend a meeting of the Western Cape standing committee on transport and public works. Instead, he has set out to embarrass Lennit Max, the chair of the committee, to score points in the DA’s leadership battles, where Herron is supporting De Lille.
The good news is that the standing committee has now decided to invite the South Road Families’ Association, Wynberg Residents and Ratepayers Association, Wynberg Taxi Association and Transport for Cape Town to brief the committee on May 12. The meeting will proceed with or without Herron. Further good news is that the national Department of Transport has started an investigation into the alternative routes raised by the community. They visited the city and also spoke with affected communities last week.
The ANC has embarked on a process of consulting all affected communities from Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Philippi, Gugulethu, Hanover Park and others along the route. This not sabotage. This is not hatred of MyCiTi. It is a process to ensure that communities and role-players in the transport sector are included. We want MyCiTi to work.
If truth be told, it is the DA’s lack of transparency and failure to consult that is the biggest risk to MyCiTi. CAMERON DUGMORE MPL ANC Spokesman on Transport and Public Works THE LETTER “City ignores our rights over MyCiTi route, (Cape Argus, March 20) refers.
I do not know whether the writer, Wendy-Lynn Almacin, is one of the city’s tenants since we have no lease with a tenant of that name. If she is a tenant, then she will know that the properties acquired by the city in the South Road road reserve were specifically acquired for the purpose of being demolished when the time came to build the road. She will also know that these are suburban houses – not state-subsidised housing reserved for indigent people on the housing database – rented to the tenants at market-related rentals (as required by the Municipal Asset Transfer Regulations) who were able to demonstrate that they could afford the rentals.
If Ms Almacin is a tenant, then she will also know her rights with regard to a rented house are only those rights contained in her lease and that the lease she signed with the city specifically provides for the termination of that lease, on one or two months’ notice, when the city is about to build the roadway.
In my view, it is the height of bad faith to agree to terms of occupancy of a property when signing a lease, only to refuse to comply with the terms of your contract once you have occupation. It is also grossly dishonest to attempt to portray the city as acting unfairly when all we are asking is that the tenants now honour their agreement with the city and vacate the properties as the road reserve is now required.
Ms Almacin and the South Road Families Association are wrong to suggest that there are viable alternatives to the South Road access to Wynberg. All the options for access have been assessed and the South Road scheme is the only viable route. Moreover, shifting the route, as proposed by the South Road Families Association and the ANC, would impact on other families – families that have had no expectation of that disruption since they do not live in a road reserve and probably own their homes (which we would have to expropriate).
It makes no sense, and it would be wrong and extremely costly, to expropriate properties along another route and force those families to relocate when we already own the vast majority of properties required in a proclaimed road reserve for a route we regard as the most viable.
Also, despite my repeated and public statements that I would be happy to meet with the South Road Families Association, they have never taken me up on that. It is simply not true that they have made “repeated” requests to meet with me and that I have failed to do so.
The other side of this narrative is the fact that 18 of the 26 tenants occupying the city-owned houses along South Road are not paying their rent and have accumulated rental arrears of nearly R4.5 million. It is therefore not surprising that some of these tenants are resisting a move – they are living in decent houses without paying a cent and have not honoured any of the undertakings given to the city to repay their debt. One should ask why the ANC and Almacin omit to mention this in their letters to the newspapers. BRETT HERRON Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town City of Cape Town