Great North Transport is in bad shape – DA
After an oversight visit they made to the depots, the official opposition party alleges that the deterioration of the regional buses is in the worst possible state.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) conducted oversight visits to eight depots of the state-owned bus company, Great North Transport (GNT). According to DA spokesperson, Katlego Suzan Phala, the visits come after the company’s reported failures to arrive on time and leaving passengers stranded. “Our calls for joint oversight visits fell on deaf ears on both the Limpopo Economic Development and Tourism and Transport (LEDET) committee chairpersons,” Pala said.
Oversights were conducted to the Hoedspruit, Phalaborwa, Tzaneen, Makhado, Marble Hall, Motetema, Papedi, and Mokopane GNT bus depots to ensure access to areas with economic activities, health care, grant pay points and education. “Most of the depots are understaffed and underresourced to provide logistical and mechanical support to the dwindling fleet. The Papedi depot in Driekop has no mechanic and during our visit, the assistant mechanic was on leave.
Most bus depots have vacancies for inspectors and the Tzaneen depot has been without a inspector for two years due to lack of funds. At most of the depots, where inspectors are employed, there are no ancillary vehicles to perform their duties outside the depots,” she said. She said that ancillary vehicles are important to depots as they are utilised by mechanics to attend to breakdowns. “Mechanics now utilise private vehicles to perform these functions.
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Phalaborwa bus depot is currently not selling tickets as commuters greatly decreased due to an unreliable schedule and fleet; they deal with cash only which cannot be condoned. “The delay in parts procurement contributes greatly to the deterioration of the fleet. It is clear that the turnaround strategy was ill-conceived as rural bus depots are now under-resourced and have critical vacancies which diminish their services.
“The gap in subsidised transport left by GNT affects poor communities who cannot afford other means of transport. The DA will continue to conduct regular oversights until the ANCgovernment accounts for services promised,” added Phala. GNT released a statement on their attempts to solve the problem faced by their commuters. Patrick Monkoe of GNT said that they are fully committed to seeing the pension fund liquidation process, which is currently underway, finalised.
“The company through its CEO, Dr Matata Mokoele, has taken a firm decision not to rest until all outstanding benefits are paid to deserving beneficiaries. Over the weekend of April 27, unnerving allegations were circulated in the media alleging that GNT is reneging on its commitment to fulfilling payments obligation as previously stated following the dissolution of the liquidation process,” Monkoe said.
As GNT, we are satisfied with the progress to date, and we can confidently announce that 84% of payments of the outstanding benefits to former employees or appointed beneficiaries of the total of 1163 applications were successfully processed and paid,” he said. When asked about the state of their buses and the recent visit to bus depots by the DA, he said he cannot comment.
“We never received the report from the DA on what problems they found. We only heard from the offices that people are visiting the depots, and we cannot stop them from doing so, but so far, there is nothing much I can say as I have no report, maybe once I receive it, then I will be able to respond,” he added.
