GNT to let go of unprofitable routes
Great North Transport (GNT) faces a financial collapse and has implemented a turnaround strategy which will see routes that don't create revenue being let go
POLOKWANE – Great North Transport (GNT) says it is rationalising its current routes to determine which are profitable and to let go of those that do not create revenue.
The entity faces a financial collapse, as was stated through the AG report, during a recent meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).
Over the past few years, GNT, which is a subsidiary of the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (Leda) received various bail-outs from provincial Treasury and has been unable to deliver adequate services to its commuters.
During the meeting, Scopa also heard of R30 million in irregular expenditure incurred in the past two financial years. The committee heard of a turnaround strategy in which a detailed plan was compiled to ensure that the entity becomes profitable again.
At a recent handover of 13 new buses as part of a R297 million injection into the entity, BONUS spoke to Thabelang Ncube, the Chairperson of the GNT board regarding how GNT plans to bring stability to the entity.
Read more: Premier hands over 13 new Great North Transport (GNT) buses to operators
“To ensure the turnaround strategy works, we have to cut on expenditure in order to increases revenue. It is for this reason that we have to determine which routes are profitable and which routes aren’t.
Ncube added that GNT will be maximising maintenance plans as she says they cannot keep begging for bailouts.
“GNT needs to be able to sustain itself. The human factor is one that also needs fine tuning. Acts of pilferage are a concern, which has led to the implementation of a cashless bus system. An electrical monitoring system will be installed in all our buses and those subsididised by GNT.”
During the handover the Premier, Stanley Chupu Mathabatha said the turnaround strategy went through a professional scrutiny test which allowed Treasury to bank on it.
“A risk analysis was done and all variables were taken into consideration. We identified the fails and wins while identifying the mitigating variables.”
The premier ended off by stating that human factor is the only fluid variable that can lead to the failure of the strategy.
