TAXI ASSOCIATION LODGES COMPLAINT AGAINST GOLDEN ARROW OVER MyCiTi N2 ROUTE

  • September 30, 2019
  • Posted by: Cheryl
  • Category: Transport
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Cape Town – The power struggle over the control of the City’s MyCiti N2 express route ahs taken a trun, with the Congress of democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta) lodging a frayd complaint against Golden Arrow Bus Services.

Codeta’s lawyer, Barnabas Xulu, said that the complaint related to alleged irregularities on processes associated with the route and his clients “had hard evidence”.

“Serious allegations have been made against certain parties, and matters of fraud and corruption have been reported to the relevant law enforcement agencies.

“The allegations of misconduct are serious irregularities and governance problems under the N2 express, chief among which is the dominance of Golden Arrow Bus Services and their monopoly over all processes associated with the N2 express,” said Xulu.

This emerged when the association responded after the City announced last week that it would put out a request for quotations for an interim service provider that would run the stalled route in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain from December.

This means that thousands of poor commuters relying on the service will continue finding alternative transport that they say is not affordable.

The successful bidder will operate the four N2 Express routes until a permanent vehicle-operating company is appointed for five years.

“The call for RFQs (requests for quotations) now confirms our initial assertion that the City seeks to muscle out the underprivileged and disempowered minibus taxi operators who are the rightful and directly affected operators in favour of a century-old and untransformed bus company,” said Xulu.

“The issue of the RFQ supports the assertion that the cards are being rigged to have Golden Arrow as the sole operator of the N2 Express Route,” he said.

Golden Arrow and the City had not responded by deadline.

In a letter to Xulu, the Hawks’ head of Commercial Crimes, Major-General Alfred Khana, confirmed receipt of the complaint, indicating that it had been forwarded to the provincial commander for investigation.

Elsewhere, calm has been restored in Dunoon and Joe Slovo near Milnerton, where MyCiti buses were suspended last week following days of violent protests linked to the impounding of minibus taxis by traffic law enforcement officers.

 

Source: Cape Times