Is Section B’s rank a ‘white elephant’?

Lolo Madonsela

A R21-million taxi rank in Section B, eMondlo has been dubbed a white elephant after being vandalised and turned into a criminals’ den.
The state of the art rank was built in 2016, complete with areas for informal traders to set up shop.
Sadly, the stands have since been wrecked, half of the fencing and most of the doors have been stolen and infrastructure such as windows, electrical cables and roller doors have been stripped out.
According to residents, taxi owners were averse to utilising the taxi rank because they felt the area was not central for all commuters.
“It now sits as a waste because I do not think when Government built this, they consulted with taxi owners. Otherwise, they would have known what will work and what will not. We are now scared to walk past here when we knock off late from work, because amaphara own this place and they rob us of our belongings. It is no longer safe for us. They could have at least utilised the rank for something else than to waste taxpayers’ money,” said resident, Thabi Qwabe.

Also read: No word on Mondlo taxi rank

DA Zululand District Caucus Leader, Sibusiso Nkosi agreed no proper consultation had been done with the taxi owners.
“Consultation was not done properly with all the relevant stakeholders, including the community and the taxi association. This development has been a wasteful expenditure; we have a lot of issues in the district like sewage spillage, shortage of water, electricity and electric poles which need fixing and the sorry state of the roads. Maybe this investment could have be used for such pressing issues,” said Nkosi.
He also claimed the infrastructure was never officially handed over to AbaQulusi Municipality.
“The provincial Department of Transport did not hand this infrastructure to the local municipality, therefore it does not belong as an asset to the local municipality. The municipality must communicate with department so it can be handed over, then the municipality may be able to utilise it for something else which will bring in money,” added Nkosi.
eMondlo Stadium in Section B, which was built to the tune of R20-million by the Zululand District Municipality, is also sitting fallow and has been vandalised with no security personnel on site.
It also allegedly faced the same situation, of not being officially handed over to the local municipality.
Both the Department of Transport and the district municipality were contacted for response, but by the time of going to print this week, no comment had been given by either.

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