Tony Ehrenreich must come clean about ANC’s attempts to derail MyCiTi roll-outs

30 July 2015

It is time for Tony Ehrenreich, who sits in both the ANC and COSATU, to come clean about the ANC’s attempts to derail Phase 2 of the MyCiTi bus service to the metro-south east.

Phase 2 of the MyCiTi service will serve the very communities in Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Philippi among others, who are battling with the overcrowded and unreliable Metrorail train service.

Thus far, however, the ANC has tried every trick in the book to delay the implementation of Phase 2 as it will serve their narrow political interests in the year leading up to the local government elections:

• They are funding the South Road families’ litigation against the City
• They have encouraged residents not to attend the public information sessions about Phase 2, the routes, stops and stations
• They are threatening to interfere with the National Government’s funding of Phase 2 without which this project will never come off the ground
• They have attempted to prevent international grant funding for Phase 2

Furthermore, Transport for Cape Town, the City’s transport authority, has now been waiting for longer than a year for the National Minister of Transport to approve the City’s application for the assignment of the subsidised bus services contracting authority function and operating licence function.

Once given this authority, the City will be able to restructure the Golden Arrow Bus Service routes and integrate the service with other modes of transport such as rail. This will go a long way towards improving public transport in the areas that COSATU is referring to. We are still waiting for the National Minister of Transport to give us the go-ahead – this despite the endorsement of the South African Local Government Association and the Financial and Fiscal Commission and the approval of other ministers.

COSATU is also ignorant about the recently launched MyCiTi express service along the Table View corridor. Contrary to their propaganda, the express buses make their first stop of the day at the MyCiTi station in Dunoon.

I invite Tony Ehrenreich to step out of his bubble and to travel in a MyCiTi bus along the Table View corridor in the peak-hour period to see for himself that the service is embraced by all of our residents, regardless of colour. The City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, has already given him a ticket to ride and a map to find the service.

Statement issued by Councillor Brett Herron, Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town, City of Cape Town, July 30 2015