DA hit by accusation of failure with IPTS

“YOU have failed to get the buses on the road and you must accept that you have failed.”

This was the unanimous message from the ANC yesterday as it lambasted the Nelson Mandela Bay coalition government for missing its own deadline of getting the long-awaited IPTS bus system up and running.

At a roads and transport portfolio committee meeting, the ANC complained that it only heard about challenges and delays with the integrated public transport system.

Portfolio chairman Rano Kayser said previously the project would be launched this month and the pilot would start on the Cleary Park route.

They have since moved the launch date to the end of next month as they need to iron out some of the challenges with the taxi associations.

ANC councillor Ncediso Captain said if there were problems with getting the project off the ground, it had to be communicated to the committee.

“You are always appearing in the papers with officials saying they will be launching and now nothing is happening,” he said.

Kayser said the ANC had had 13 years to roll out the IPTS, but it was expecting the coalition government to do it in six months.

All agreed that officials must ensure all the money allocated for the IPTS is spent by the end of the financial year, June 30.

By the end of February, no money had been spent of the R58.3-million capital budget.

The roll-over funds were approved late last year by the national Treasury but only transferred to the capital budget in February.