End of the road for Inner Circle’s ‘Mr Big’
CHATSWORTH’S Inner Circle bus owner Hanyroup Ramlall, 87, who died on Saturday, was regarded a visionary whose service helped the community grow.
Ramlall died in his Kharwastan home after a short illness.
His son Sandy said his father was a hard worker who increased the bus fleet to 68 during the golden era of buses from the 1970s to 1990s.
“My father officially retired in 1989 from the business, but continued guiding and giving advice to the Chatsworth bus owners. He would still come to the depot in Sunset Avenue and always kept abreast of the bus business. We have downsized the fleet considerably to a few buses that are on contract,” he said.
The book Indian Buses – the History-the Memories-the
Personalities by Zainul Aberdeen revealed that Ramlall’s interest in transportation was spurred from driving the family’s Chev truck, laden with fresh produce and staff, from their Sawoti farm in the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast to the Victoria Street Market in Durban.
He later moved to Trimborne Road in Cato Manor in the 1950s when he purchased a bus and began transporting passengers between Booth Road and Durban.
By 1962, Indian people from Cato Manor had been relocated to homes in Chatsworth. Ramlall was among the first batch of about 20 bus owners that transported passengers between Chatsworth and Durban via Mobeni and Clairwood. He created Royal Passenger Service, which was popular on the inner circle route in Chatsworth, and focused on special loads to clothing factories, schools and universities.
“It was an unbelievable business, a dream to operate such a huge transport operation, without the assistance of modern technology,” Ramlall had said in the book. “Some of the difficulties we experienced in the development of Chatsworth were poor road conditions. To combat this, I bought a plot of land in Sunset Avenue and created my own tyre retread plant.”
He lived by the motto: “Don’t let them scare you.”
During the South African Railways commission investigation – the rail authorities wanted Chatsworth bus owners to stop their services to the Durban city centre – Ramlall stood firm.
The commission, in the late 1970s, wanted buses to offload passengers at railway stations along Higginson Highway in what was called a feeder system. The trains would commute the passengers to Durban. The buses would transport people from Higginson Highway to the inner suburb roads on a designed route. Through this commission, Ramlall earned the nickname Mr Big.
“The Durban bus industry created a craze that no other transport system can match. It was a phenomenal achievement for the Indians. The people of Chatsworth were taken on an inner circle ride of cherished memories,” said Ramlall.
Rakesh Bhim, who spoke on behalf of the Chatsworth bus owners association, said when the suburb’s housing schemes were built, not much consideration was given to commuter transport.
“He had a vision and formulated the inner circle route in Chatsworth to take people to work, school, the clinics, sports grounds and the hospital. That is how Chatsworth grew. He did this without a transport subsidy. He got people moving. He created something out of nothing. His commitment to the passenger service was second to none.”