The eThekwini Municipality plans to spend about R1 billion acquiring new buses and replacing old ones.
It tabled before the council meeting on Wednesday a request to spend about R1.1bn on buses over the next three years.
Opposition councillors felt “uneasy” that the purchase would mean the city was buying new buses for Durban’s bus transport operator, Tansnat, despite the difficult relationship the company has with the city.
Reading from the council agenda, mayor Zandile Gumede said the municipality needed about R325 million over the next three years to replace old buses, and would need more than R700m over the same period to buy new buses for the C3 Go Durban Corridor, which is the rapid bus transit route between KwaMashu and Pinetown. It is expected to start operating soon.
“The optimum life span of a bus is 10 years, going beyond this will result in significant repairs and maintenance being required to ensure that these are available and comply with road safety,” read the report.
It said about 128 buses were older than 10 years, and these already required major refurbishments. It said new buses were also needed as the “first corridor, C3, of the GoDurban service will be running with an interim operation this year, and these will be acquired based on demand and would need 74 rigid buses and 41 articulated buses in the first three years”.
DA leader Zwakele Mncwango said more clarity was needed on the project.
“This recommendation was signed last year. Why did it take so long to come before council?
“A presentation should have been made to councillors clarifying who will run these buses because current city buses are run by Tansnat. There was a proposal in the past that the city would set up its own entity that would run its public transport – what has happened to that?
“There is still an issue with that as the municipality and the company have taken each other to court, and there are still allegations about who owes whom,” he said.