Durban — The ActionSA party in KwaZulu-Natal has lashed out at eThekwini Municipality for spending millions of rands guarding and cleaning the ‘white elephant’ GO!Durban bus terminal structures, while a senior parliamentary figures has lambasted the city for making a rod for its own back and not getting on with it like other major cities.
The party’s provincial chairperson Zwakele Mncwango said the City had issued the contract to protect the bus stations from vandalism and theft with the hope that the project would start operating, which it did not.
Mncwango said that the City was paying close to R5 million a month to guard and clean unused bus stations in KwaMashu and Pinetown.
However, the municipality disputed Mncwango’s figures saying the actual amount was less than half of what he claimed was R2.3m a month.
City’s spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said: “The figure of R5 for cleaning services and security services is incorrect. The correct figure is that R2.1 monthly is paid for patrolling and manned security services of 12 bus stations and 24 transfer facilities en route this followed a thorough security assessment after some of the stations were vandalised. The cleaning services for the 12 bus stations and 24 transfer facilities enroute is R200 000 monthly. Therefore, the total figure amounts to R2.3m, not R5m.”
Mncwango also blamed this spending on poor leadership, saying the escalating costs were a result of poor planning by the City’s management.
He said the money the City had spent guarding “white elephant” structures had to be regarded as wasteful expenditure and those responsible should be held to account.
“The City is at risk of losing the funding from the national government for this itransport system because it was failing to complete it,” said Mncwango.
The National Council of Provinces has also intervened in the matter. The six members of the parliamentary team representing KwaZulu-Natal led by its whip, Mzamo Billy, recently visited the province to oversee various projects.
Billy said that his committee had expressed serious concern about the stalled GO!Durban project and wanted answers from Mayor Cyril Xaba as to what the City was, or would do, to unlock the project. He blamed the City for being part of the delays by treating taxi business forums with kid gloves.
He said the City’s insistence on offering taxi owners a 35% stake was illegal and against the Transport Department’s funding model which required the City to have full control of the operations.
He said the City’s engagement with taxis was consultative, but not binding since there was no law forcing it to have an equity partner.
In a meeting between the NCOP and the provincial government two weeks ago, it emerged that the City had offered taxi owners 35% and would retain a 65% control of the operation, but the taxi bosses were rejecting the offer, causing further delays.
Billy said in that meeting Xaba made an executive undertaking that he would resolve the impasse within 90 days by calling all stakeholders into a meeting.
“Making an executive undertaking is not a small thing because it is binding. If the mayor fails to resolve the matter, and get GO!Durban operating, he would have to come to parliament to account,” Billy said.
“On top of that, the agreement was that the mayor will, from time to time, give us progress reports on how far he is with his undertaking.
“The City is allowing itself to be held by taxis to ransom. Cape Town and Johannesburg had the same taxi problems but forged ahead and completed their projects without giving in to taxi demands.
“eThekwini’s delay is self-created,” said Billy.
The multibillion-rand project began more than 10 years ago, but stalled after taxi forums demand a slice of the pie.
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