Ndithini Leon Tyhido, Cape Metro Development Council (CMDC)
The Cape Metro Development Council (CMDC) representing more than (25) development forums, salutes and congratulates National Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and his provincial counterpart Dylan Mitchell for finally brokering a peace deal between the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (CODETA), the two taxi associations that have been engaging in the bloodiest feud over the Bellville to Paarl route over the past few weeks.
The council also wishes to express its gratitude to its own local development forums and other civil society formations who individually have decided to engage these taxi associations in their respective localities, the KDF in Khayelitsha as well as the GDF, NDF and PDF in Nyanga, Gugulethu and Philippi.
The CMDC calls on all stakeholders in the metro to come together for a "Public Transport Indaba" which must be held towards the end of September.
The indaba must be charged with the responsibility to carve a path for an integrated, reliable, affordable and safe public transport system in the Cape Metro.
It will have to deal with the structural issues in the taxi industry such as stricter controls on permitting, route demarcations and vetting of member.
We also wish to call on (the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) PRASA to expedite the recovery of the Central Line.
The Cape Metro Development Council also calls on the City of Cape Town to immediately resolve the impasse between them and Codeta and resume the services of the MyCiTi/ N2 express.
The CMDC believes that, only the above proposed integrated public transport indaba would afford the residents of Cape Town the opportunity to deal with the challenges they face.