In October, I wrote a letter to the News titled Transport month means nothing to the West Rand residents.
Power FM saw the letter and invited me for an interview. I agreed. But the interview was postponed due to the unavailability of the Gauteng MEC for Transport. Fair enough.
Three weeks later, the MEC’s spokesperson told me that the MEC will be interviewed by Power FM the next morning (15 November) on the issues I have raised in my letter. Interestingly, I was not invited to the interview. When I informed her that I knew nothing about the interview, she was shocked and surprised.
The following day, Power FM phoned to inform me that the interview was re-scheduled for the 16 November, and the MEC for transport will take part. I was surprised, but agreed. I suspect Power FM phoned me on the insistence of the MEC’s spokesperson.
On the day of the interview, Power FM stood me up. I tried calling the producer but to no avail. I then phoned the MEC’s spokesperson who told me that Ismail Vadi was not available for the interview. Again. What arrogance! So the interview has been cancelled.
I respect Vadi. Like I said in my previous letter, he is hardworking and passionate about his work. But I have also come to see the other side of him: He is arrogant, but in a subtle way. This is the very arrogance that has made the ANC lose votes in the last local government elections.
My sense is that the MEC for Transport never thought that the issue of lack of transport development on the West Rand will come to the public fore. This is because the issue has been swept under the carpet for a very long time. So he was caught off guard.
I also think he avoided the radio interview because what I said in my letter is true. It is true that the Gauteng provincial government has no transport plan for the greater West Rand. So residents will continue to suffer transport-wise.
The transport plan the Gauteng province had for the region was based on West Rand becoming a metropolitan municipality or a unicity. However, the West Rand was not approved to be a unicity. So the province’s plan collapsed. And it didn’t – and still doesn’t – have a plan B.
What does this mean for the West Rand residents? It means for the next five years the residents will continue to rely on taxis for transport. When you add five years to the twenty years of our hard-won democracy, its twenty seven years of lack of service delivery on the transport front. That’s a very long time.
