THE Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip in eThekwini, Thabani Mthethwa visited the Go!Durban stations on Wednesday, 5 February to inspect the non-operating project.
This visit follows the shocking report from the Auditor General who revealed that more than R300 million of the Integrated Rapid Transport Network grant, which was supposed to be used for this unfinished project, was returned to the National Treasury.
Mthethwa was joined by Ward 18 councillor, Melanie Brauteseth, Ward 21 PR councillor, Riona Gokool and Zamani Khuzwayo, DA Whip for Human Settlement and Infrastructure.
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“We are deeply concerned and disappointed by what we consider to be a lack of progress with regards to the city’s Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network (IRPTN) or Go!Durban,” said Mthethwa.
At the inception, Mthethwa said this project it promised to provide flexible, safe and cost-effective public transport to the people of eThekwini.
He told reporters that the first route of this project was supposed to be operational in 2018.
“Since then there have been numerous delays as a result of work stoppages because of (amongst other things), disputes with taxi operators, the notorious so-called business forums, and the failures of contractors.
“In June of 2019, we were assured that the project would be fully operational in September 2019. It is now five months later and not a single route is properly operational,” he said.
The Highway Mail has reached out to the eThekwini Municipality for comment.
Read the full story in next week’s edition of the Highway Mail.
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