Cosatu withdraws MyCiTi complaint

City says it’s vindicated as union’s case was without merit

THE WITHDRAWAL of a complaint in the Equality Court about the MyCiTi bus routes has turned into a spat between the City of Cape Town and Cosatu over who won. Cosatu had approached the court accusing the city of discrimination against poorer communities in its roll out of the bus service. But yesterday Cosatu withdrew its complaint in what it said was “a great victory for workers and communities”. The city said it had been vindicated. In a statement, the city said Cosatu was claiming false victory, and that it was “a pity” that about R371 000 of ratepayers’ money had been spent during the litigation to defend the city’s position. The court’s time had also been wasted.

Cosatu had claimed the city had been unfair in its choice of routes, accusing the city of being biased in selecting which communities received routes first, such as affluent Milnerton.

At the time, Cosatu said it was filing the application on behalf of its 240 000 members in the Western Cape affected by the bus system.

Yesterday, attorney Peter Williams, for the union, said among the reasons cited were that the city had introduced the single ride tickets which helped poor people who occasionally used the service, that stations in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain (the metro south-east areas) had been built to the same standards as those in Milnerton, and that the city had accepted that not all services were equal now, but relied on national government funding and service providers.

The union’s statement said: “Cosatu has scored a great victory for workers and communities at the Equality Court today.”

However, the city said the past nine months had seen time-consuming meetings at court. “It was evident right from the start that Cosatu’s complaint, which criticised the standard of the service offered in the metro south-east before it had even been launched, was unfounded.”

In a second statement, city mayoral committee member for Transport Brett Herron questioned how Cosatu could claim victory when it had withdrawn “because they had to concede that their case was without merit”.

Herron said the city had been working on issuing single trip tickets months before Cosatu’s compliant was lodged.

How could Cosatu justify wasting ratepayers’ money by “forcing the city to defend itself against costly and vexatious litigation?”, he asked.

The city noted that Cosatu had conceded that transport authorities were “using all resources at its disposal” to provide an equal service to residents, and that the union acknowledged that national government money was essential if there was to be equal access for all residents.

“Cosatu has furthermore conceded that the city has thus far made significant progress in providing safe, decent and affordable public transport to the people of Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha.”