Taxi association disputes death threat claims by contractors

Ward 18 councillor, Melanie Brauteseth said the roadworks issue in Pinetown requires urgent and decisive action from all officials involved as it is a complete mess, literally and figuratively.

February 15, 2018

Sanelisiwe Tsinde 4 minutes read

A deep trench that has been left open in Bamboo Lane, just outside John Wesley School.

ALLEGATIONS of death threats from taxi associations are believed to be the cause for the delay in the municipality’s pipeline project in various roads in Pinetown.

Residents around Bamboo Lane, Payne Street and Beviss Road were left puzzled after workers disappeared in the middle of November last year.

“We are left with huge holes at the side of the road in Payne Street and Bevis Road, which have been filled with water. The orange barricades they put up are forever falling down in the middle of the roads, causing a danger to traffic, and the orange netting has all but blown away,” said a resident who asked not to be named.

The resident said they are kept awake until 2am by the loud croaking of frogs hanging around these holes, and twice as many mosquitoes.

This is not the first time residents have questioned the work done on those roads.

They have been concerned that the roads they have been working on have been poorly cordoned off and deep trenches have been exposed in the area where many children get dropped off by taxis and parents.

Ward 18 councillor, Melanie Brauteseth, said one of the major reasons for the delay and the bad condition of the various sites in Dale, Bamboo, Palm and Beviss Roads is due to conflict with taxi associations which has been ongoing since November 2017.

“The project began in early 2017 and should have been completed in December 2017.”

Brauteseth said according to Chapps Construction, the delay has been caused by the death threats they have received, warning them to move off site immediately.

“Endless negotiations have taken place between eThekwini Transport Authority, the taxi associations and the relevant departments of the municipality to resolve the issues and to at least make arrangements for the sites to be made safe, but to no avail. The taxi associations have allegedly forced the contractor’s teams off site and out of their site office,” said Brauteseth.

According to Brauteseth, Chapps Construction received instructions from the municipality to resume work three weeks ago, but three days after the go-ahead the municipality sent them a notice to suspend all work until further notice.

She said she has repeatedly asked for a full investigation into the matter, including interaction with the taxi associations.

“The various departments involved have, however, failed to submit a report or proposals for a way forward to resolve these issues.

“In the interim, I have briefed Metro and SAPS who will continue to monitor the sites. It is untenable that the development of Pinetown can be held to ransom by third parties and that the officials involved are adopting a hands-off approach to the problem. This is a complete mess, literally and figuratively, and requires urgent and decisive action from all officials involved,” said Brauteseth.

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Regret over inconvenience

Chamaray Naidoo from Chapps Construction said the ongoing matter for this Pinetown project is unfortunate and unnecessary. As of November 2017 Chapps Construction had received death threats from the taxi association.

“They had demanded that we stop all work on site. We had informed the municipality who had then took over this matter. We also knew that the site was unsafe due to bad weather conditions and had tried to plead with the taxi association to let us make the site safe,” explained Naidoo.

She said the taxi association refused this request and continued to chase our staff off site and the site camp.

“We then tried to do some repairs without the knowledge of the taxi association and was unsuccessful as they had confronted us. Our staff had been on standby over the December shutdown to make sure that we were around if the taxi association did allow for us to make the site safe.

“This matter is still ongoing. We had received notice to commence work in January 2018 but in just 3 days we were suspended from work by the taxi association.”

Chapps construction has been informed by the municipality to suspend all works until further notice till this issue is resolved. I believe that the taxi association is demanding a payout to allow us to work but the municipality is still deliberating that matter.

“The Chapps Construction team is waiting for a verdict so that we may complete this project. It is unfortunate that while waiting, we had thefts occur in the site camp and around the site. We are incurring losses because of the delay in the matter between the taxi association, business forum and the municipality.”

“We do apologise for the inconvenience and we sincerely hope to finish this contract. If there is any help that your could provide us with, we will be very grateful and if there is any information we can provide please do not hesitate to ask. We understand how the community feels for the continuous disruption. We are merely a construction company trying to conduct our work without inconveniencing the community, but at this point it is out of our control as we are contracted to the municipality and the instruction that we suspend all work.”

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Pinetown Taxi Association shocked by claims of death threats

Pinetown Taxi Association chairman, Bheki Mbambo denied that the taxi associations have threatened the contractors.”What are we going to gain by threatening contractors, especially in those roads that they are referring to, they are not even next to the taxi ranks?”Mbambo said instead the City should be screening the companies that they hire to see if they are competent to do the work and finish it in time.

“Pinetown use to be a beautiful place, now there are holes in every corner and you should see the trenches that these contractors keep digging, it has been years and there seem to be no way forward.

“Why would we send out out death threats when it is our cars that get damaged because of these roadworks. I have been in the taxi industry for years including the eThekwini Metro Management Taxi Council, I have and will never promote violence,” he said.

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