City will not be sidetracked by COSATU's gimmicks
Whilst the people of Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain and the affected role players in the public transport industry have welcomed the City's planned roll-out of the MyCiTi N2 Express service and are enthusiastically embracing the additional public transport capacity, taxi industry transition opportunities and local empowerment opportunities, COSATU seem desperate to undermine the project. This is only in the interest of furthering its narrative that the City does not care for residents in the Metro South East.
The N2 Express Service will commence on 5 July 2014 with the City in partnership with affected taxi operators from Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain. This partnership will pave the way for the major public transport improvements the City has planned for both communities in the future as entailed in the Integrated Public Transport Network plan that was adopted by the City Council on 25 June 2014.
In the wake of the City's progress in the Metro South East, COSATU will find themselves becoming increasingly irrelevant and this manoeuvre by COSATU is a silly attempt to find some relevance.
There is no doubt that many communities in the city, and around the country, are in need of improved public transport. No matter where the City rolled out its first BRT routes there would always have been a cry for the service to be rolled out elsewhere.
The decision as to where to start the service was based on the lack of mass rapid transportation up the west coast corridor to Atlantis. COSATU's claim that this amounts to discrimination against the communities of the Cape Flats is informed by their own biased narrative.
There is no crisis or delay to the roll-out of the N2 Express service.
Furthermore, the service was always expected to commence with temporary infrastructure and the construction of stops is well underway. This is no different to how the MyCiTi service was rolled out in Phase 1A and in fact there are still temporary stops in operation in parts of Phase 1A, including Fresnaye on the Atlantic Seaboard.
COSATU's claim that the service is discriminatory is false and absurd. Yet again, Tony Ehrenreich demonstrates a profound lack of understanding to such an extent that COSATU's contribution and comments are in fact meaningless.
To date the City of Cape Town has invested R4,6 billion in the MyCiTi bus service as part of our broader strategy of investing in the infrastructure that will help drive economic growth, development and inclusion. Through this investment the City has improved the lives of many of our residents: first and foremost by providing safe and efficient public transport to residents on the fringes of the city and secondly through empowerment.
In fact, the long-term operational empowerment through the 12-year contracts between the City and the Vehicle Operating Companies to operate the first phase of the MyCiTi service equates to R2,5 billion. Up to 80% of the operations of Phase 1 are being run by the two Vehicle Operating companies set up by impacted taxi associations.
In addition, most of the workforce including the drivers have come directly from the taxi industry.
The extension of the MyCiTi service to our residents in Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha is a milestone which should be celebrated. It has been made possible through the co-operation of our residents, as well as through collaboration between the City and key role players from the transport industry such as Codeta in Khayelitsha, Route 6 Taxi Association in Mitchells Plain and the Golden Arrow Bus Service.
Following on from months of complicated transitional negotiations, these industry parties have formed a Joint Venture Vehicle Operating Company (VOC) and signed a three-year operating contract for the N2 Express service. This is no small feat.
Statement issued by Councillor Brett Herron, Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town, City of Cape Town, July 1 2014
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