POLOKWANE – Commuters in Blood River, Ga-Maganye have been struggling with taxi drivers who refuse to go into the village because of the state of the road. The struggle has been ongoing and commuters have had enough.
Commuters have requested that the municipality do something about the condition of the roads as this is the reason taxi drivers don’t go into the village.
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“When we ask why they do not want to go into the village, we are told that the roads damage their taxis. No matter how late it is in the evening or whether it’s raining, they refuse. They say that they are afraid that they will get fired because the instruction not to use that road comes from their bosses,” said one commuter.
He said regardless of the complaints made, the municipality has not tarred the road.
The Moletjie Taxi Association’s Interim Chairperson, Noko Mokoatedi said that they have not received any formal complaint from commuters.
He however urged commuters to come forward so that their plight can be addressed.
“Yes, the roads are not good but that is beyond our power and no taxi driver can refuse to go there because we are in the business of serving clients, commuters are our clients. Any commuter who has ever experienced any problem should immediately contact us so that we can deal with the matter accordingly. We don’t mind attending community meetings and hearing what the community has to say but we need to be notified about such things or else we won’t know about them,” he said.
Disree Manyane, Spokesperson for the Polokwane Municipality said the area mentioned was graded on 12 October as requested by the ward councillor, as part of their routine maintenance programme.
“We, however, want to emphasise to communities that tarring and road re-graveling requests must be brought to the attention of their local ward councillors in order for submissions to be made to the relevant departments. We appeal to our residents to work together and interact constantly with their ward councillors as it will fast-track the implementation of services in their areas by the municipality,” she said.
