Durban - The first leg of the long-awaited Go! Durban public transport service in eThekwini Municipality is set to launch in October.
That is, if City officials meet the deadline set by eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, who wants the multimillionrand project launch to coincide with October’s “Transport month”.
The launch of Go!Durban’s first route C3 – between KwaMashu and Pinetown – was expected in November last year, after it missed the July deadline because of a dispute with taxi operators.
The taxi industry was brought into the project as their businesses would be affected by it. One of the matters the taxi operators and municipality cannot agree on is the ownership of the buses that will operate on the Go! Durban route.
The municipality purchased the buses earmarked to run on this route, and as such it wanted to retain a 51% controlling interest.
However, the taxi operators felt they had been displaced by the project and that it had destroyed the livelihoods they had built over decades.
They felt they should have a controlling interest in ownership of the buses. This led to a stand-off between the parties that is yet to be resolved.
However, municipal officials are confident that the launch will go ahead this time, as changes to the project’s model have been made in order to ensure that the livelihoods of the taxi operators were not severely impacted.
The changed model means that the operators will no longer have to surrender their operating licences, and they can continue to run their taxis on the route unhindered. The buses will be running on the same route.
Initially, the model had proposed that the taxi operators on the route would surrender their licences and be compensated for the loss of business and would also benefit through the bus ownership on the route.
ANC councillor Nkosenhle Madlala said it was important that the project goes live, while they understand that negotiations were taking place under difficult conditions.
“We have invested billions in this infrastructure and we know that some of our infrastructure is falling into a state of disrepair and is at risk of being vandalised,” Madlala said.
Mathula Mkhize of the Durban West Region Taxi Association said there had been no negotiations with their operators.