Transport rivalry splits Tonota village

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Wednesday June 9, 2010 00:00

On Wednesday Tonota residents could be seen walking into the village in large numbers as there were no local taxis to ferry them to their final destinations within the village. The taxi operators have cited lack of business on their part because Francistown buses are dropping off passengers within the village instead of at the bus rank, where they would then hop into a taxi to get home.

Mmegi visited the new Tonota Bus rank where taxi operators had parked their cars until a resolution to their grievances could be passed. One of the taxi operators, Morena Majoo said they have been struggling with bus operators since the rank was established. 'We have struggled from the word go since the rank started operating on April 1,' said Majoo.   He said it was agreed that as a trial the buses would drop off people at the rank where taxis would take them for the final leg of their journey, but the whole thing had failed as the buses failed to cooperate. He said the buses still operate as they did before the establishment of the bus rank. Majoo further alleged that when buses drive through the village they also pick up customers on the way using local rates. 'They pick up some passengers on the way that are waiting for taxis,' he said. According to the operators, Tonota Rank currently has 23 combis and 18 taxis.

Majoo said they have written letters to the station commander, the area MP and the councillors regarding the issue but it has not been resolved.  'We consulted with the station manager for transport here and he has now told us that there is nothing that he can do about the issue so we are wondering that if he is saying that, where then are we expected to go with such a problem,' he asked.  Another taxi operator Neo Nkomo explained;

'At the beginning we attended a meeting, it was us, bus operators, the councillor, chiefs and it was decided how we would all operate. It did not last because after a few days the buses started going into the village again,' she said.  She went on to say that at first the police were charging them and then they stopped, thus worsening the problem. She added that they have held meetings with the DRTS station manager, Selela Tshwene but they have failed to yield anything.

'We went to see him at transport but he said he would give us an answer on May 21 but we did not hear anything from him and on the 23rd he came and postponed and also told us that he had told the bus operators the resolution,' she added.  She stressed that their businesses and ultimately their families are suffering since they started using the rank.

The ladies who run the stalls where food and other necessities are sold also had complaints about the new rank. Kebabonye Ntsipe said when she got a stall at the rank she was excited because she thought that she would be able to make money from people at the rank.

'We spend the day here with taxi operators so they are our customers as for customers who are getting off the buses they are not there but we keep on paying rent to the council,' she complained.

Passengers also complained that although buses take people into the village they do not frequent all the places that taxis would normally drop them. Kgathego Moleele, a passenger said that people are actually walking to their homes kilometres away.  'People walk to the clinic, to the council and to the school because there is no transport,' he said. DRTS station manager, Selela Tshwene said that ever since the bus rank started operating in Tonota the bus operators and local taxi operators have not been in agreement.  'We have had conversations with them and so far we have not been fruitful and we are trying to have them cooperate in their work,' he said. He said that although they have tried to make some arrangement on the matter, in actual fact the bus operators still hold permits that allow them to go into the village. 'They are not breaking any laws. Even though there is a problem and we see it, the law is the law so we cannot just tell the bus operators to stop going where their permit tells them to go,' he said.

He said that DRTS cannot stop them from using their permits the way the law allows them to. 'The local taxi operators feel that this is bad for their business but we are not just sitting, we are looking for ways to find common ground,' stated Tshwene.