Teams deployed to clean up taxi ranks

A clean-up drive by the city’s Transport Authority started this week, with a multidisciplinary team getting stuck into an intensive week-long campaign to clean up taxi ranks in the bustling Durban Central Business District (CBD).

eThekwini Municipality spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, said the campaign, led by the eThekwini Transport Authority, was part of the city’s attempt to regenerate the CBD. She said their aim was to repair broken infrastructure, clean-up the ranks and ensure that the facility was up to standard for commuters.

“Teams were on the ground from Monday (August 7) cleaning up the Lorne Street, Mansfield and Centenary taxi ranks in the CBD. Other taxi ranks in the city will be cleaned during the week,” she said, adding that the campaign would be extended to focus on the Dalton and Umgeni areas.

City employees attended to plumbing faults, illegal dumping, they unblocked drains and also repaired faulty electrical equipment and damaged or vandalised infrastructure, said Ms Sisilana.

As part of the campaign, the Metro Police carried out enforcement action against those contravening by-laws in the vicinity. The city also partnered with the Department of Home Affairs to offer assistance to the homeless and conducted educational talks with commuters.

Among the challenges the municipality faces are ongoing vandalism at taxi ranks and illegal dumping. While the city had carried out a number of clean up operations over the years, the challenges persisted and taxi commuters were affected most by this, as they are the ones who use the taxi services, said Ms Sisilana.

“The eThekwini Municipality calls on commuters to look after the facilities provided for their benefit. Vandalism of infrastructure remains a serious challenge.It costs the municipality millions of rand to repair,” said Ms Sisilana.