City of Mbombela points finger at taxi associations

MBOMBELA - The City of Mbombela Local Municipality (CMLM) is blaming local taxi associations for the delay in implementing the integrated public transport network (IPTN).

This network needs to go live before the Bester Street taxi rank can become operational. Another deadline for the IPTN’s launch passed last month.

The terminus is part of a multi-million rand programme to develop a public transport hub in the Mbombela CBD. It is now mainly used as a car wash and parking place.

Spokesman for the municipality, Joseph Ngala said stakeholders and some of the local taxi associations have not reached an agreement.

“We have issues that we need to resolve and agree upon before we go live,” he told Lowvelder. “We have managed to reach an agreement with some of the taxi associations. However, we can only go live after they all agree in what we are planning. We are currently working on reaching an agreement. Once we do, then we can go ahead.”

The construction of the taxi rank began in August 2014. As of June 2019 the hub is still not functional, although the terminals themselves have been completed.

This has led to frustrations for nearby businesses.

Jan Strydom, managing director of

FGK Capital at Canary Walk Mall, next door to the taxi-terminus site, said they hear promises, but no results of when the taxi rank will be operational. “We were previously given different dates by the municipality and last year we were told that in July it would start, but nothing happened.

“Tenants and business owners will benefit and the mall will grow faster if it starts operating. There are people that shop in the mall that would be very happy to have transport right next to it. We see elderly people that are forced to pay people to help them carry their groceries to the taxi rank. This means they are paying extra cash for this assistance,” he said.

The South African National Taxi Council declined to comment on the matter. Ngala had not provided any detail on the nature of the issues at the time of going to press.

Background

In December 2016 the subcontractor claimed he had not been paid, but CMLM insisted he was.

Ngala said the project ran behind schedule, so CMLM granted the main contractor, LBMC Consulting, an extension to get the job done. They hoped to be finished by mid-January 2017.

In January they then extended the completion date to the end of February, then replaced the subcontractor, transferring the steelwork responsibilities to Quality Steel.