May 14, 2004
By Thomas Thale
THE Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC), a council-owned company responsible for constructing and managing markets and taxi ranks in the city, on Thursday vowed that taxi operators who have defaulted on their rent at Metro Mall, would be locked out of the rank if they do not pay up by Monday.
The Metro Mall is the largest and best-equipped transport holding facility in the city, catering for taxis, buses and informal traders. The 2520 taxis operating from the rank are each charged R60 per month, generating R151 200 per month for the MTC, which the body's operations manager, Nhanhla Ndovela, said goes towards upkeep of the facility.
Ndovela said that, collectively, the eight taxi associations operating from the mall have accumulated arrears totalling R1-million over the past year.
Dumisani Mntambo, spokesman for Baracity, one of the defaulting associations, said that in principle, taxi associations object to having to pay for the use of public facilities. "We want to meet policy makers to settle this matter. We provide public transport without any government subsidy. We never used to pay any rent for the use of ranks." Mntambo agreed that the rank needed to be maintained, but insisted that the MTC could work with the taxi associations in exploring alternative sources of funding, such as selling advertising space in the rank.
His sentiments were echoed by Zandisile Tunce, spokesman for Dorljota, who said the taxi associations had formed the Mall Taxi Association to take up their grievances. "We have problems with the way the MTC manages all the ranks. They always tell us that they don't have power to make decisions. We want to meet the decision-makers."
Mntambo said paying rent would increase the overheads of taxi operators who are already struggling to make ends meet. "We operate in squatter camps like Orange Farm and Freedom Park, where roads are bad. We constantly have to replace parts like ball joints and shock absorbers. Despite the drastic increase in the petrol price, we have not increased our fares."
But Ndovela dismissed these concerns, saying that taxi associations had committed to paying rent. "They collect money from their members, but the money never reaches us," charged Ndovela. "Why are they withholding this money? If they want to meet politicians, it's fine, but they must settle their debts."
Ndovela held up hope that the matter could still be resolved before the Monday deadline. "Two associations have indicated a willingness to settle their arrears. We'll see how things turn out tomorrow."
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