Provisional meetings scheduled for next month to report on the proposed concept design for the refurbishment of the Wynberg Public Transport Interchange (PTI) have been cancelled.
With the PTI upgrade having been in the pipeline for some time, the City of Cape Town told People’s Post earlier this month that it was finalising the proposed concept design for the Wynberg PTI and that the draft concept design would be presented before subcouncils 18 and 20 in October, as well as to the City’s Portfolio Committee on Urban Mobility.
However, in a communique sent late yesterday afternoon (Monday 26 September), the City informed People’s Post that the submission of the report had been postponed until a later date “for some further technical input”.
According to Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayco member for urban mobility, the purpose of the proposed project is to create a facility that can accommodate the current and future public transport demand.
“One of the big challenges currently is that the facility is stretched way beyond its capacity and cannot accommodate the volume of operators and commuters making use of the space. The new minibus-taxi facilities will address all of these concerns, including the provision of holding areas for the vehicles between peak-hour periods.”
With no new date yet set for the postponed subcouncil meetings, Quintas says that once these Council processes have been concluded, the City will present the concept design to the public for comment, and further input.
The design allows for different modes of transport – from minibus-taxis, to passenger rail, the future MyCiTi service and GABS (Golden Arrow Bus Services) – to be located within one hub.
“The proposed improvements are aimed at turning this area into a pedestrian-friendly space and to improve traffic flow and vehicular movement,” says Quintas.
Good news for beleaguered Wynberg residents who have had to deal with severe congestion and illegal taxi ranks springing up in their streets for years.
The not-so-good news, however, is that construction on the upgraded PTI is only likely to start three years from now.
“Once the public participation process (aimed for October/November) has been concluded, we will finalise the concept design; then we will work on the detailed design, and thereafter, the construction tender will be advertised. If all goes as planned, construction should commence by mid-2025,” says Quintas.
Two years ago, People’s Post reported on the unhygienic conditions prevalent in Egham Road caused by the overflow of taxis from Morom Road (also an illegal taxi rank).
Besides the increasing number of taxis parking in their street, Eghamhof residents also complained about open-air drug use and public urination.
When People’s Post spoke to Melvin Smith, a trustee of Eghamhof’s body corporate, this week, he said the conditions in their road had become even worse, with minibus taxis now double parking on the red line in Egham Road.
“When you try to leave your driveway, you have to get around them. You just have to stick your car’s nose out there and pray you don’t get swiped,” says Smith.
Asked about the drug use and public urination, Smith said nothing had changed.
“The druggies hide behind the taxis, the police van can’t even see them, and our walls are still being used as toilets. They have made no arrangements for portable loos.”
Smith says that waiting until then is untenable.
“They should come up with an interim measure until they decide to do something, for example, what about the City-owned parking opposite Wynberg Library. There is also an open space behind Riverside Mall. Let them park there. The government issued them the permits, legalised them. It is the Council’s duty to see that they have a place to park,” says Smith.
In the meantime, Xanthea Limberg, chair of Subcouncil 20, earlier this month said that more operating licenses were going to be issued to minibus-taxi operators.
In an email sent to Wynberg residents on Monday 5 September, Emile Langenhoven, councillor for Ward 62, shared information provided to him by Limberg “regarding the various issues in Wynberg”.
According to the information shared, there was an increase in demand for alternative public transport modes such as buses and minibus taxis, “as a result of a deteriorating and an increasingly unsafe railway system”.
“While the multi-storey PTI upgrade is still in planning stages, more operating licenses are being issued to taxi operators by the relevant authority (Western Cape Provincial Government) in response to the growing public transport demand,” Limberg was quoted as saying. She also stated that both councillors Langenhoven and Carmen Siebritz (councillor for Ward 63) had identified alternative holding areas “to be explored, and requested these to be utilised to relieve the current mobility pressures”.
While the issuing of taxi licences is managed by the Provincial Regulatory Entity (PRE), Quintas states that a total of 274 operating licences were supported by the City as part of the first phase of the Minibus-taxi Special Regulatory Project with the Wynberg PTI as a destination.
Of this number, 190 have thus far been supported with another 84 still to be supported. These operating licences are divided between five minibus-taxi associations: Codeta Wynberg Claremont, Mfuleni Wynberg Claremont, Cata Wynberg Constantia, Cata Langa Mowbray and Cata Westlake.
Quintas says these operating licences were supported on the existing network of routes of the respective minibus-taxi associations with Wynberg PTI being only one of the destinations they are authorised to go to.
“This means that not all of these vehicles will travel to the Wynberg PTI every day as the taxi associations rotate their vehicles on a daily basis to cover all the destinations they need to serve in terms of the conditions of their operating licences,” he says.
As to the “identified alternative holding areas”, Quintas says the City’s Transport Regulation branch will provide operational direction in terms of the proposed holding areas.
“The Branch: Public Transport Infrastructure Planning and Design, will investigate the feasibility of these proposals in terms of land ownership, zoning, design, cost, and so on, of the proposed sites to be used for holding – bearing in mind the imminent major refurbishment of the facility.”
Editor’s note:
“A previous version of the article states that a meeting was scheduled to take place in October. However, after going to print, People’s Post understands the meeting has now been cancelled. The current version of this article reflects those changes.”
