Over the past three years, the News has reported on the ongoing CBD taxi rank construction project seven times. So little changed in the months between those stories that even by the request of the public, it was impractical to write more articles.
Now, four years after the project started on May 2, 2018, there was yet another stoppage at the rank recently while buildings remain only partially completed and the gates closed.
Also read: Taxi rank still under construction after almost 40 months
The reason seems to be the same as before: The main contractor has not paid one of their sub-contractors, this time the security contractor, which ensures the security of the workers and prevents the site being vandalised.
Zillah Maguire, MMC for Local Economic and Rural Development explained that after the main contractor, Maragela Consulting Engineers recently stopped using the services of the previous construction sub-contractor and hired a new one, construction continued for a while without major problems.
Unfortunately, the work was stopped again – as far as we could understand, because the main contractor failed to pay the security company.
Councillor Mark Trump, whose ward is the CBD explained. “After they had promised to pay by April 14, in the presence of MEC Jacob Mamabolo, the security company locked up the taxi rank in desperation to get their money”.
Last year in February the News reported that the taxi rank had been under construction for longer than it took to build the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Space Needle and 88 On Field in Durban. Today, the duration of the taxi rank construction is nearing the time it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge in America, Guggenheim Museum in Spain, and the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.
It might seem ludicrous to make these comparisons, as those projects had far larger budgets, but the taxi rank is just a tarred surface with a few frames, roofs, ablution blocks and stalls.
Zillah noted that Maragela claimed that the work was about 95% done, but that the MCLM thought it was closer to 75%.
We have R3 million left to complete the work. Maragela ensured us that the budget was sufficient to complete it,” she said.
According to Mark, “In a meeting with the mayor, Maragela was asked four times: ‘Are you sure it will be completed by the end of May?’ and he was confident in saying four times that it would be completed”.
Concerning the question on what would happen if the project goes over budget and Maragela requests more funding from the MCLM, Zillah said, “If something like that had to happen and they did not have the funds to complete the job, we will have to take legal action against the company,” adding that there was still time and that it might not come to that.
At this point, the stalls and ablution blocks have been erected and the sewerage system installed. But, most of the buildings do not have doors, none have roofs, the wiring still needs to be done, and the toilets and basins need to be installed.
The steel frames are showing signs of rusting, and businesses and taxi owners are losing money.
It’s already damaged the local economy so badly, so we’re going to get the rank up and running – even if it means that certain sections will remain closed until they are completed. We have to make sure that it starts operating,” Zillah said.
