East Rand Mall Taxi Rank riddled with potholes

The East Rand Mall Taxi Rank has been deteriorating in recent times.

The situation at the local rank, which accommodates thousands of people on a daily basis, has prompted passers-by to lament the state of the facility.

One passer-by recently highlighted the situation to the Advertiser and wrote: “I had to take some labourers to the rank on Monday in the rain. It was an awful experience. The taxis need to manoeuver through potholes, is pathetic at best.”

East Rand Mall Taxi Rank to be upgraded

The East Rand Mall, which owns the rank, responded and assured of a plan of action sooner rather than later.

“We have been in discussions with the taxi rank management in the past. We are aware of the state of the taxi rank,” said East Rand Mall marketing manager Pierre Botha.

“Obviously, that (upgrading) is something we’ve been planning towards but then Covid-19 happened.

“We have plans to upgrade it and it will happen in two phases. The first phase we are hoping will commence at the end of the year. We are waiting for quotes we’ve made to come in so that we can appoint a contractor and then we will be starting with the upgrading of the taxi rank.”

Commuters adhere to Covid-19 regulations

East Rand Mall Taxi Rank queue marshal Sifiso Mchunu said commuters have been very cooperative with safety protocols.

“Sanitisers are handed out by taxi associations to ranks and some commuters have their own sanitisers, which we have no problem with,” said Mchunu.

“In most cases, commuters wear their masks. We’ve made it a point that they must have their masks on when boarding a taxi at all times and we’ve had no problems with them – everything is going well. So far, so good.”

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