Two Mamelodi-based taxi associations today (Tuesday) responded to a call to fix the taxi route that has been in bad shape for many years in the RDP section which is situated in the Far East of Mamelodi.
The two chairman Ben Maredi and Stemmer Monageng tour the area and inspect it.
The taxi association splashed the damaged road with G5 soil and also contributed money to help fix the road.
Mamelodi Amalgamated Taxi Associations chairperson Ben Maredi told Tshwane Talks that his association heeded a call by the community of RDP section to fix the damaged road.
“This route is in bad shape and makes it impossible for taxis and vehicles of community members to drive on it, hence we decided to help fix it,” he said.
“We want the community to see that as taxi associations we are ploughing back to the community as the community is the one that supports the taxi business.
Without the community the taxi business is nothing,” explained Maredi.
Mamelodi Local Long Distance Taxi Association (MALLDTA) chairperson Stemmer Monageng told Tshwane Talks that their first step as taxi associations (MATA and MALLDTA) was to make the township of Mamelodi a violence-free zone and that now they are in their second step, which is to take care of the community and help wherever possible.
He said fixing the damaged taxi route is part of their mission to take care of the community.
“Our taxis can’t access RDP section as there are potholes which are full of rainwater.
This makes it impossible for taxis to get to the commuters who want to use taxis,” explained Monageng.
“The City of Tshwane has failed us.
We tried asking for help from it in fixing this route, but we were told that it is bankrupt,” said Monageng.
“There is no service delivery in this area.
A simple thing like a water pipe which has been leaking for many weeks now we as the taxi associations have managed to fix it in 30 minutes,” he said.
He said in other households we found waterlogged in the whole yard, resulting in mosquitos causing much discomfort to the family members of that household.
We wanted to make it clear that the two taxi associations are not a group of politicians but businesspeople whose aim is to help the community.
“As a temporary measure, we have splashed the damaged road with G5 soil, which is very strong and will make sure there are no problems when it rains.
This process will last until next week. The route will be fully tarred in the near future,” he said.
“We want municipal officials to come and see what we are doing.
We want to know if they will pay us as we are doing something that they have failed to do for many years,” said Monageng.
The Councilor responsible for Ward 97 which is RDP section Ananias Mogalusi, confirmed that the City of Tshwane is bankrupt and that’s its result he as a councilor is experiencing challenges in trying to fix the damaged taxi route.
“I’m happy that the two taxi associations responded positively to his request for them to help him fix the taxi route,” he said.
“I’m very happy that the taxi association has come to the rescue and the bad route will be a thing of a past and we will no longer suffer especially when its rain,” Leah Bogosi motorist.
Taxi driver Alfred Matlala said he spend lots of money every month fixing his taxi because.
of the bad road.
“It’s been more than 6 years we as taxi drivers been complaining about one thing, but no one came to the rescue but today we thanked the association for first step in fixing the road,” Matlala said.