Cape Town - Concerned Wynberg residents have petitioned Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille to abandon plans for a MyCiTi route through Wynberg.
“We do not accept that this proposal is the only option available for the MyCiTi route in Wynberg,” said the Wynberg Ratepayers’ and Residents Association. The petition can be accessed online, via the association’s social media platforms.
More than 30 council houses will be demolished if the new bus route gets the green light, and businesses in the area say retail activity will be severely hampered by one-way traffic along Main Road.
New roads are to be built parallel to South Road and also parallel to Main Road between Kemms and Wetton roads. There will also be a subway/bridge across the railway line.
Tenants on South Road and adjacent streets have already received notification from the city that their leases will terminate at the end of this year. They are to find alternative accommodation by January so that the houses can be demolished.
The city’s Transport for Cape Town directorate has said the tenants were informed of the city’s transport plans and their location on an approved road scheme, and many of the leases were therefore on a month-to-month basis.
The South Road scheme dates to the 1960s, with the detailed design finalised in 2000. The South Road and Wynberg couplet reserves will form a key part of the next phase of the MyCiTi service between Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Wynberg.
But the association said there were alternatives that would integrate with existing public transport networks, use existing road space large enough for extra bus lanes and that would not require houses to be bulldozed to make way for infrastructure.
“We call on the city to scrap the proposed MyCiTi route in favour of far more viable alternatives which are supported by residents, businesses and the taxi associations,” said the association.
“It is not an integrated rapid transit (IRT) route but is simply the MyCiTi copy/pasted on to 1960s road schemes based on apartheid-era planning - it does not connect with the public interchanges in Wynberg, and will cut off Plumstead from Wynberg.”
The Protea Subcouncil supported the deproclamation of the road schemes in 2002, with an agreement that any future proposal for the area would require a full public participation process. There was strong resistance to any road scheme that would alter the nature of the area, or affect businesses and residents.
The ANC has, meanwhile, called for a moratorium on all evictions and also appealed to the mayor to convene an urgent public meeting.
“As the ANC, we are not opposed to BRT. We support it. National government is funding BRT in Cape Town, Joburg, Tshwane and other metros. What needs to happen is that the city implementing the system must engage communities, all sectors of the transport industry especially taxi owners, drivers and the guards employed.
“We are concerned that in a number of instances, such consultation by the city is either non-existent or not inclusive and transparent,” said ANC MPL Cameron Dugmore.
A public meeting is scheduled for this week.
Cape Argus