Taxis refuse to move for Ballito Junction

With less than a month to go for the grand opening of the Ballito Junction Regional mall, the developer’s plans to widen the road from the mall to the P445 (Ballito Drive) are yet to be realised.

The Junction’s road expansion project aimed at widening the road to accommodate the traffic flow in and out of the the biggest mall on the North Coast cannot take place because of the taxi rank’s ‘temporary location’ next to the Sangweni Tourism Centre on Ballito Drive – and they refuse to move.

However, Patrick Flanagan of co-owners Menlyn Maine Investment Holdings and Flanagan & Gerard Property Development & Investment promised that the delay of the road works will not affect the opening of the mall. He said they were crossing their fingers that the construction will be complete in time for the opening on March 23.

“We are awaiting wave leaves from the KwaDukuza council in order to commence work, which is minor in nature,” he said.

DA Ward 22 councillor and KDM executive mayoral committee member Malcolm Hubner said there had been no discussion about the road expansion project in council yet. He warned that if the roadworks are not completed in time for the opening, traffic will be a bigger nightmare than it already is.

“The mall will attract many visitors. There will be thousands of workers going in and out of the mall on a daily basis. Traffic flow on that road is already a disaster and taxis cutting through makes it worse,” he said.

The taxi rank was ‘temporarily’ moved by KwaDukuza municipality to Ballito Drive in 2014 following the decision to widen Ballito Drive to six lanes.

KDM now plans to move the taxi rank to the land where the Shell Greenfields Service Station once stood (next to the P455/ Ballito Drive between Virgin Active and the N2).

Also read: Ballito taxi rank fumble

The process to start the expropriation of the land was approved last year by the landowners (Shell SA) and the transport department.

However, KDM is still trying to generate money through grant funding and sale of properties to pay for the land. In the meantime, the Dolphin Coast Taxi Association have refused move to another temporary location to accommodate the Junction’s road expansion project.

Dolphin Coast Taxi Association chairperson Richard David said that if they are forced out of their current location “things could get violent”.

“We will only move to the land by Shell Garage when it is ready for us. It was suggested to us by KDM last year that the taxi rank be split. You cannot ask a business to spit in half, that does not make sense. They were supposed to discuss another way forward. We have not heard from them since last year,” he said.

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