The Portfolio Committee on Transport has expressed concern over the stagnation of the Integrated Public Transport Network System programme in Pietermaritzburg’s Msunduzi Local Municipality.
The committee Chairperson, Mr Donald Selamolela, said the successful implementation of the programme had the potential to be a catalyst for economic growth and job creation. “The programme, otherwise known as the BRT [bus rapid transport] system, need not to have failed, as it seems in Pietermaritzburg, especially after so much money had already been spent. This programme ought not only to have benefited commuters but should have provided employment opportunities for our people,” he said.
Mr Selamolela continued: “We need not be lamenting what could have been. We are disappointed and we are concerned with what we found in Pietermaritzburg [Msunduzi Local Municipality]. The programme is going to become a white elephant if nothing is done.”
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the National Department of Transport informed the committee that the project is being wound down and will be discontinued. Mr Selamolela said the plan should be around innovative uses of the infrastructure that has been already laid out.
The committee began its visit with a meeting and a walkabout of the troubled programme’s transport system. Mr Selamolela said it is further concerning that the national Department of Transport’s understanding and expectations of the project differs to that of the municipality’s. “This speak to the silo mentality and the lack of alignment of thought around project implementation. It is not enough to cite the taxi industry as the reason for non-implementation of projects when the municipality has failed,” he said.
He added: “Now we are sitting with a situation where the national department says stop, and the municipality says it has continuation plans. That does not work; the municipality should use the available funding, developing comprehensive work plans to repurpose the already laid-out infrastructure.”
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