Durban — The eThekwini Transport Authority and the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) will conduct a site visit of the proposed uMhlanga taxi rank.
This comes two weeks after taxi operators blocked off roads in the vicinity of the M4 highway and Lighthouse Road. Business premises were also blocked and staff were panicking because they could not leave their workplace. Rival taxi associations were in consultation with members of law enforcement on the scene.
For years they complained about the lack of space to rank their vehicles in uMhlanga. Things became worse with the new Oceans Mall development and an increase in the number of people visiting the precinct.
The two entities will participate in a site visit on Friday facilitated by the eThekwini Transport Authority, to find lasting solutions to the uMhlanga Oceans Mall taxi rank challenge.
Municipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said: “To proactively address the situation, the City has tabled short- and long-term remedial solutions to address the operational challenges during a joint stakeholder engagement between the City, Greater North Region Taxi Council and the Oceans Mall developer.
“The developer has extended the current operational arrangements by 10 days while the parties endeavour to find a short-term solution.”
Sisilana said the eThekwini Transport Authority has scheduled a site visit with Santaco to determine a proposed new taxi rank within the vicinity.
“The site visit is part of the City’s long-term proposed remedial solutions that will be tabled and discussed with Santaco before the 10-day period lapses,” Sisilana said.
“As part of the City’s ongoing short-term discussions with the uMhlanga Oceans Mall developers, it has been proposed that there should be an extension of the current ranking site to accommodate 90 bays for holding and ranking.
“eThekwini Transport Authority will conduct a survey to determine the traffic flow and other issues regarding the site of the proposed taxi rank,” Sisilana said.
She added that further engagements with stakeholders will take place on Tuesday, October 10.
Two weeks ago, the Daily News reported that a ward councillor in uMhlanga Rocks said residents were rattled by the blockade staged by taxi operators, up to the point that they were “considering their options”.
Councillor Nicole Bollman said that with the 2021 riots fresh in everyone’s minds, what happened in uMhlanga represented the tinderbox eThekwini currently finds itself sitting on due to the City’s obvious ploy to divide and conquer.
She said the inconvenience included the inability to access uMhlanga and businesses were affected, with some fearing the worst.
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Daily News