Cape Town - The City’s announcement that an interim operator for the MyCiTi N2 Express service would be sought has come as a shock to the lawyers of the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta), because they were still in talks with their client.
On Thursday, the City said it regretted to inform MyCiTi commuters that the N2 Express Company shareholders had failed to meet the deadline for the service to be reinstated on September 28.
Mayco member for transport
Felicity Purchase said: “Given that the City now has to proceed with a supply chain management process to appoint an interim service provider, the N2 Express service will only be operating by December 2019, if all goes as planned.”
She said the City would advertise a request for quotation, which called on vehicle-operating companies to submit bids for operating the N2 Express service between Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha, and the Cape Town CBD, on an interim basis.
“The interim service provider will operate the four N2 Express routes until such time as the City has appointed a permanent vehicle-operating company to provide the N2 Express service for a five-year period,” Purchase said.
She said she was “terribly”
disappointed that the shareholders of the N2 Express Company - namely Codeta, Route 6 Taxi Association, and the Golden Arrow Bus Service - had failed to reach an internal agreement
on the way forward.
Purchase said the Golden Arrow Bus Service and Route 6 Taxi Association had confirmed in a letter to the City that they were willing to resume the service.
“However, Codeta is insisting on a new arrangement at all costs.”
Purchase said the City could not wait any longer for the shareholders to set aside their internal disagreements.
“Neither do we have the mandate to intervene in matters that are for the shareholders to resolve.”
Codeta’s lawyer, Barnabas Xulu, said the City’s announcement came as a shock to them, because they were consulting with their client.
Xulu said they were aware of the deadline given to them, “which is Saturday”, and said they still had time for their submission.
Andile Peter, chief executive of another MyCiTi vehicle-operating company, Kidrogen, which provides the services for Dunoon and Table View to the CBD routes, said he was not interested in what the City was saying.
“We are interested in our brothers, Codeta, and the needs of our commuters.”
“We need to make sure the city understands the agenda of the Bus Rapid Transport system,” Peter said.
Purchase said about 3000 commuters from Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha relied on the N2 Express buses to travel to and from the CBD.
“The commuters’ travelling costs have increased dramatically since the service was temporarily terminated on May 31.”
The service was suspended after a contractual dispute between the joint venture company that operated on the route.
The city said Codeta refused to sign a new contract to get the services rolling again.
Mayco member for transport Felicity Purchase
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