On Thursday, the 8th of September 2022, we conducted a joint oversight visit to inspect progress at the construction of four Public Transport facilities in Region G.
The facilities – Orange Farm, Vlakfontein, Lehae and Lenasia Public Transport Facilities – are constructed by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), an entity under the Department of Development Planning, on behalf of the Transport Department.
To date, R117.3 million has been spent on the facilities in Orange Farm (Stretford Ext 10), Vlakfontein and Lenasia, with the Vlakfontein and Lenasia facilities nearing completion.
In Lenasia, the contractor is putting the final touches to the facility by widening the entrances and exits, to allow sufficient space for multiple vehicles to exit and enter simultaneously.
The state-of-the-art facility, which forms part of the JDA’s turn-key projects identified for upgrade, is 98 percent complete and is fully equipped with street furniture, loading bays for local and cross border taxis, wash bays and informal trading stalls.
MMC Mbundu said the 76 informal traders who were trading at the Lenasia facility before they were relocated to make way for renovations will be resettled at the newly revamped stalls in line with the City’s informal trader Policy.
This policy will also be applied across all taxi facilities that have the informal trading stalls to ensure that people who occupy the stalls have been properly registered on the City’s system and have valid permits to trade.
In Vlakfontein, we were pleased with a report from engineers indicating that the facility will be fully completed at the end of September 2022 and that processes to operationalise it will start in earnest. It also consists of loading and wash bays; a guard house, landscaping and it is fully fenced.
While the overall progress was pleasing, concerns remain at the Orange Farm facility.
We engaged at length with SMMEs contracted to carry out work at the facility, and they raised concerns mainly about rates they were paid for work and issues of late payments.
Working jointly as sister departments, we undertook to follow up on these issues to ensure work resumes and that the facility, which is 68% complete, is operationalised as quickly as possible.
Upon completion, the Orange Farm facility will feature loading bays, wash bays, ablution facilities, an amphitheatre, a guardhouse and trading stalls.
Our main concern is the Lehae taxi facility.
Since completion in 2017, the facility has never been operational and now stands vandalised.
A major contributing factor was a decision by the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport, to assign operating rights to a significantly higher number of taxi operators than the prescribed two. This led to conflict between taxi operators, ultimately leading to the facility not being used.
However, the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), an entity of the Department of Economic Development, has been contracted to repair the facility.
In the coming weeks, we will return to these sites, to inspect work being done and to ensure that the issues raised during our joint oversight visit have been addressed.INFO SUPPLIED
