The Go! Durban project has gone through multiple mayors and many pronounced dates of its launch, yet it has failed to go live.
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THE Durban West Taxi Region that would be most affected by eThekwini's integrated transport system, GO! Durban, has expressed its frustration at the eThekwini Municipality's disregard for its patience and playing by the book as they see the perpetually delayed multi-billion project wither away.
"We are the most affected but least important," is how Mathula Mkhize, the chairperson of the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) Durban West Region, defined the municipality's position with them.
Mkhize said the project has gone through multiple mayors and pronounced many dates of the launch, yet the project has failed to go live. Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, Mkhize said as Durban West, they've chosen to go on a consultative route since the municipality wanted their participation to be grouped with all public comments on the project, instead of affected stakeholders.
"We've complied; we've supported the municipality to calibrate its buses, and we agreed to give them space to do that and compromised. Not once have we ever made demands or interrupted any city processes," said Mkhize.
He said they've studied the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in other metros and municipalities so as not to fall into the same mistakes they committed, as they've seen casualties in the industry with the launch of the project in other cities across South Africa.
"In all the BRT systems, the project is rolled out with a compensation model. It has a great impact on the taxi industry, especially the average taxi operator," said Mkhize.
He said that as the Durban West Region, they have decided to stick to initial agreements and the rule book, which is probably the reason why the municipality decided to give them a wide berth and communicate with other regions and make presentations, even though these regions don't have GO! Durban routes for now.
"Out of five regions, Durban West has never received its presentation relating to the new phenomenon, tactical adjustment. It was treated as the public process, and comment was sought. Yet the city went to other (taxi) regions that don't even have routes and asked them for comments," said Mkhize.
He went back to how negotiations with the municipality involved the issue of operational, maintenance, security, and other services for the project that would involve the taxi industry.
In last week's edition of the Sunday Tribune, the municipality revealed that it was spending approximately R2.5 million on 24-hour patrolling and manned security services, and maintenance of the GO! Durban's 27km roadway and 12 stations and 24 transfer stations.
"Right now there are cleaning services and security and other maintenance items at the stations; we are not involved, yet we are not complaining," said Mkhize.
These services were issued to tender for the public instead of giving them to the taxi industry, as per the agreement within one of the principles of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the City.
"People lost cars, taxi stops, and routes were shut down, and they pulled out of the industry and committed to supporting GO! Durban and awaited the promised compensation. Right now, as Durban West, we are waiting for compensation as agreed," said Mkhize.
He cited the decision of the city going ahead with construction and the route instead of going by phases, and he said he suspected this was deliberate to avoid compensating the taxi industry.
According to Mkhize, phase one of the project was supposed to be launched and go live and generate income for the city, and then other phases were to follow; however, the City deviated from this and turned the BRT project into a construction project.
He said the intervention by Transport Minister Barbara Creecy, who has given the municipality an ultimatum to fix the mess and stick to the rule book, is in line with what they've been saying.
"We can't afford not to be on our toes, be informative, and be responsive when we've seen the mistakes in all the other cities and the casualties that the industry has gone through. Our posture as Durban West Region is that we said the city must carry on with their programme of delaying their death because, hook or crook, no bus will run at Durban West without the initial agreements that are there in black and white, which are legally binding," said Mkhize.
He said the feeling is that other regions might not take compensation if the programme reaches their routes. This is one of the reasons Durban West doesn't want to negotiate as a block with other regions, as those regions don't have GO! Durban bus stops and networks.
He said he found it strange that in all other cities where BRT has been launched, the issue of compensation has never been in dispute, yet the eThekwini decided to introduce tactical adjustment to the project to sidestep compensation.
Mkhize said it's a pity that the road surface of the GO! Durban route has already deteriorated without the buses being tested to utilise the road.
The municipality hadn't responded to the questions sent to it at the time of publication.