Cape Town switched off on electric bus response‚ De Lille admits

14 August 2018 - 18:56 By Philani Nombembe
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Some of the electric buses awaiting delivery to Cape Town's MyCiTi service
Some of the electric buses awaiting delivery to Cape Town's MyCiTi service
Image: Dave Chambers

The City of Cape Town has publicly disputed a Sunday Times report on the ability of its electric buses to climb hills‚ despite admitting that it failed to provide the newspaper with updated information.

At a press briefing on Tuesday at the Civic Centre‚ outgoing mayor Patricia de Lille dismissed the August 12 report — which said the council was withholding payment for 11 buses until they could sustain 60km/h on a 4% gradient — as “grossly inaccurate” and said she intended to report the Sunday Times to the press ombudsman.

De Lille assembled senior city officials including acting transport commissioner Gershwin Fortune and Brett Herron‚ the mayoral committee member on transport‚ to dispute the article. Fortune spoke about the testing and inspection of the buses and the results.

Neither he‚ Herron nor De Lille explained why members of the council transport and urban development committee were told in writing as recently as August 2 that the buses had failed the gradient test.

“Before we get into the facts of the specification tests‚ I would like to address the dangerous practice of reporting allegations as fact and not seeking comment from the relevant person which the allegations is linked to‚” said De Lille.

“The information that Gershwin will share‚ the correct response on the results was ready to be sent to the journalist but the city manager was not available for sign-off and therefore this response was not sent to the journalist.”

The Sunday Times reported that councillors had been told the 11 Chinese buses in the R128-million pilot project could not handle many of the city’s inclines.

The newspaper quoted a report tabled to councillors on August 2 stating that: “The buses are required to be able to achieve 60km/h on a 4% gradient. The performance has not been met. Tests are under way to increase the power to drive motors.”

The article also said the procurement of the buses from the Chinese company BYD is subject to a forensic probe into allegations that De Lille and senior city officials set up meetings with the company before it clinched the deal.

The Sunday Times has put the allegations to De Lille before and she has repeatedly denied them‚ and on Tuesday she said she looked forward to the outcome of the forensic probe commissioned by the council from law firm Bowman Gilfillan.

The city can take delivery of the buses only when the probe is concluded.

Fortune told Tuesday’s press conference that in its first test run on Hospital Bend‚ which has a gradient of up to 6.5%‚ the prototype electric bus failed to reach an average speed of 60km/h in October 2017.

All 11 electric buses were tested in June and passed the speed test‚ he said‚ without explaining why councillors were told that by the end of June the buses had not met the requirement‚ warranting a budget rollover.

Fortune said another test run took place on July 4‚ in which "one of the electric buses was tested along Hospital Bend. The telematics system report confirmed that the bus reached an average speed of 67.8km/h from Settlers Way to the top of Hospital Bend‚ where the average sustained climb was greater than 4% and greater than 6% along some sections.

“The bus performance was also tested on Kloof Nek Road and along Geneva Drive in Camps Bay‚ where satisfactory speeds were retained within traffic.”

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