Cape Town - The Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) has described the City of Cape Town’s development plan to include a MyCiTi station in Nyanga as an insult to their business.
The City shared the design of a proposed major revamp of the Nyanga public transport interchange (PTI) on Tuesday where public transport services like minibus taxis, the Golden Arrow Bus Service (Gabs) and MyCiTi buses will be located in one area.
According to Mayco member for urban mobility, Rob Quintas, the proposed new MyCiTi station was part of the roll-out of the service to the south-east of the metro.
The station is expected to be located between the Gabs terminus and the minibus taxi facility.
“Once operational, MyCiTi passengers will have a direct route to Wynberg, Claremont, Ottery and the Lansdowne area without needing to make a transfer. With a single transfer, passengers boarding buses at the Nyanga PTI will be able to connect with Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Hanover Park, Strandfontein and various other destinations along the way.
“The proposed concept design intends to have all of these public transport services – minibus taxis, Gabs, and MyCiTi buses – located in one PTI to make it easy and convenient for commuters to transfer between different modes of transport, and also to provide them with a variety of transport options,” said Quintas.
The proposed improvements will include a new roof covering the boarding and waiting areas to protect commuters from harsh weather, lighting for safety after dark, universally accessible walkways, and ablution facilities.
Informal traders are expected to benefit as well and the intersection at Emms Drive and Sithandatu Avenue will also be upgraded with a traffic circle.
Commuters and operators from Nyanga are urged to attend an information day on November 9 where officials will answer their questions.
Nyanga taxi rank is known to be a beehive of activity with about 230 minibus taxis operating from there and transporting about 16 000 commuters between the area and 25 destinations across Cape Town on weekdays.
Cata spokesperson Nkululeko Sityebi said the City approached them and presented the plan, which they rejected outright.
“We don’t want anything to do with MyCiti and don’t want it in Nyanga. We don’t even want an engagement with MyCiti. This is totally unacceptable. The City is being unfair, making us compete with companies that are being subsidised while we are not.This an insult to our business. Decisions are made without considering our challenges.
“We have complained about the space that will be provided and even the hawkers are unhappy about it.
The rank was already small with taxi owners struggling to even park their vehicles. Among our demands was for the rank to be extended,” said Sityebi.
He claimed that to date the City has not responded to any of their concerns and they are surprised that it wants an open public engagement, which they also didn’t know about.
“The problem is that like any engagements this will just be an exercise to tick their box that they had a community meeting but they have already made up their mind. They always pretend to be having consultations.
“We contribute a lot to the province’s economy but they treat us as if we don’t belong here. You can see this through their by-laws and amount of impounds compared to other provinces. They abuse power,” said Sityebi.
The concept design for this upgrade is available for comment until December 2.
Comments can be submitted via www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay or email [email protected] and alternatively hand-written comments can be submitted at the Subcouncil 13 office at the Fezeka Admin Building in Gugulethu.
Cape Times