We are signing but there are issues‚ says taxi industry

The taxi industry has signed the two documents which will enable the City of Johannesburg to implement Phase 1C of the Bus Rapid Transit system but it says it still has issues which need to be addressed.

The taxi industry has signed the two documents which will enable the City of Johannesburg to implement Phase 1C of the Bus Rapid Transit system but it says it still has issues which need to be addressed.

Ralph Jones of the SA National Taxi Council’s Greater Joburg region spoke before the signing ceremony raising some concerns about how the negotiation process was taking shape.

“There are still a lot of issue that are still outstanding. There are a lot of frustrations that we [taxi industry] are going through. Unless a paradigm shift comes‚ we are going to have problems. We are going to put the pen to paper for the sake of moving forward‚” Jones said before the signing of the documents.

The City of Johannesburg signed two agreements with the taxi industry and bus companies for the implementation of the third phase of the Bus Rapid Transit system Rea Vaya.

The BRT system is expected to be ready by October 2018. It covers Sandton‚ Alexandra‚ the city centre‚ Midrand and Ivory Park and will cost the city R2.2-billion.

The first document that was signed was the Negotiation Framework Agreement‚ which opens the way for starting negotiations on the BRT with all the affected transport operators.

In the framework will be the structure‚ agenda and rules of the negotiation process.

The other document signed was the memorandum of understanding between the parties‚ which entails the principles of how the public transport transformation process will be shaped.

The signatories to the two documents include the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) as well as taxi organisations from the Greater Joburg Region‚ Alexandra‚ Randburg‚ Midrand‚ Sandton‚ Ivory Park and Rabie Ridge.

Bus companies JR Choeu and Putco also signed the agreements.

After the ceremony‚ Jones explained some of the frustrations in the negotiations to TimesLIVE.

“There are issues with payment of allowances. I’m not happy with the allowances that are being paid‚ it is too pathetic. These are allowances meant for meeting attendances. There is no uniformity. In Ekurhuleni and Tshwane the leadership [of the taxi industry] is getting paid but we are not getting paid. We don’t know why.

“The other issue is the operating licences. There are cars that do not have operating licences but are operating at this point in time. We need to have an agreement on what is going to happen to those vehicles‚” Jones said.

Lisa Seftel‚ head of transport in the city‚ explained what would be done next after the signing of the agreements.

“We will now be proceeding to negotiating substantive agreements. The first one is the operating licences‚ regularisation and participation agreements…so that we can identify who will participate in the Rea Vaya BRT. We are also on track to sign a data gathering agreement so that we can verify and determine profitability. The next will be the bus operating contract agreement which is between the city and the affected operators‚” Seftel said.

When the city introduces Rea Vaya BRT‚ other transport operators operating on the same route are affected operators‚ whether it is minibus taxis or bus operators. These operators then become shareholders in the bus operating company that will run the BRT.

These operators have to stop operating on the route and the city facilitates the process. Minibus taxis’ operating licences get cancelled and the vehicles get scrapped. The owners receive compensation for this.