VEREENIGING.- Speaking to Sedibeng Ster recently, Mamabolo said the department has now appointed Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) to build the Vereeniging Taxi Rank.
“We have tasked GMA, which builds excellent intermodal facilities, to take over the project. They are specialists and they do excellent work.
“These are the people who build Gautrain Stations and we have given them the task because they are an entity of the department.”
Mamabolo said that GMA was busy finalising the design but had to first engage stakeholders which include the taxi industry and affected businesses so that their input may be taken into consideration.
“If the taxi industry does not approve the designs there might be a problem,” said Mamabolo. Talking about a time frame as to when the new project would be completed, Mamabolo said that it will be revealed as soon as the taxi industry has approved the designs.
The project was meant to be completed in 2015. R64 million is said to have been spent on the project.
In 2019, Mamabolo said that his department would demolish the unfinished Vereeniging Taxi Rank and replace it with a larger, intermodal rank incorporating retail space, long-distance buses and the train station.
DA MPL Kingsol Chabalala said Mamabolo’s announcement exposed the incompetence of the ANC-led provincial government. “It cannot be that they (ANC officials) spent R64 million on a taxi rank and later on want to demolish it.
“Delays in completing the taxi rank are having a negative effect on the residents and businesses around the area.
“Local businesses have lost out on much needed economic activity by waiting for the completion of the project.
“Informal traders have lost out on business which has resulted in the rise of unemployment.”
