Durban - The eThekwini Municipality is shopping for someone to “maintain” its bicycle fleet at a cost of about R200 000 for 12 months.
However, the whereabouts of the 92 bicycles donated to the city by the UN Industrial Development Organisation during the COP17 conference in Durban four years ago are a mystery.
Twelve councillors in the city’s executive committee, including mayor James Nxumalo, were each given a bicycle, but most are understood not be using them for the intended purpose - riding to work.
Responding to a list of questions by The Mercury, municipal spokeswoman Tozi Mthethwa insisted that the bikes were being used by municipal staff “to move between offices around the CBD as part of the city’s bike share scheme”.
This was after the project was launched by Nxumalo in October last year.
Opposition parties are demanding proof of this before any “maintenance budget” can be approved.
In a request for quotations published on eThekwini’s website in October, the municipality said it “requires assistance of a service provider to manage aspects of the project”.
The service provider would be “the first contact point for the project” and would be responsible for handling all routine issues “without involving the project manager”.
According to the request for quotation, the service provider would be responsible for “population and review of scanning software outputs and databases”. The project makes use of 60 bikes.
“The scanning software allows the service provider and the municipality to keep track of bicycles, bicycle users and maintenance issues. The service provider will be required to operate this software, generate reports and attend to automatically generated notifications,” the request for quotation reads.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi, an executive committee member, appeared unaware of the project and asked: “Who knows for sure that these bicycles are being used and need maintaining?
“Who uses these bicycles? Who monitors that programme? Is there a report that can back this claim? If they are indeed being used, what is the condition of the bicycles? You can’t just give us a programme or item saying that you want to maintain something we don’t know. Our job is to exercise oversight.”
He said it was clear that they could not approve a budget without having first seen the project.
DA provincial and eThekwini caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango also appeared baffled by the project.
“What I remember is that exco at some point took a resolution that the bicycles would be used. All I remember is that they were going to install tracking devices on the bikes. The resolution was not for the maintenance - it was to install tracking devices. I’m hearing this for the first time,” he said.
Asked if he had seen the bicycles being ridden in the Durban CBD, he said: “I haven’t seen it.”
In June 2013, the Sunday Tribune reported the bikes were “gathering dust” in a municipal warehouse in Red Hill.
Early that year, the municipality had approved R97 500 for reflector jackets, bicycle racks, pumps and toolkits.
Mthethwa said last week that the use of bicycles would assist in alleviating traffic congestion and would be “good for the environment, as it can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced by vehicles”.
More details about the scheme, which will allow Durban citizens to use the bicycles, would be revealed at a later stage, she said.
The Mercury