The Merafong City Local Municipality is
blaming a sluggish contractor for a
brand new building and facilities being
vandalised even before coming into use.
A Herald report in February dealt
with taxi drivers complaining that, while
they had been moved to the old taxi
rank in Station Street to ease congestion
at the main rank in Carletonville,
there are no basic services like water
at this facility.
Although a brand new building was
built at the facility towards the end of
last year, taxi drivers say it is practically
a “white elephant” as it has never been
opened to them for use. By February
2016, several of the building’s windows
had already been broken.
When the Herald visited the Station
Street taxi rank again on Monday, all the
windows had been broken and all the
doors were standing open. The new
building still was not accessible to the
public, however.
Closer inspection showed that the facilities
inside had been extensively vandalised.
In the bathrooms, toilets and
hand basins had been smashed. In
other rooms that appear to have been
equipped for the preparation of food,
sinks and other metal fixtures had been
ripped out. In some of the ten rooms at
the facility, even light fittings had been
either ripped or partially ripped from
the ceilings.
“We are very unhappy because we
have to sit here for hours at a time without
any facilities. If we want to go to
the toilet, we have to go to the nearby
filling station or back to the main rank
in town,” one of the taxi drivers told the
Herald.
He and other drivers said they could
not understand why the new building
had never been opened for their use.
The Herald asked the Merafong City
Local Municipality to explain what was
going on. After an earlier visit to the site,
the municipality said it would investigate
why the building was still not
open.
“Phase 1 of the Oberholzer taxi rank
project has not been handed over to the
municipality because the contractor
has still not completed it. An occupation
certificate cannot be issued until the
list of outstanding work has been finalised.
The Herald has previously reported
on electricity Z one of the items on the
list. Unfortunately, vandalism has taken
place at the facility.
“With the roll-out of Phase 2, this damage
will also be addressed. Once the
building has been handed over to the
municipality, it will address the security
and operational issues,” a municipal
spokesperson reported on Tuesday.
