16 February 2007
The Mpumalanga Department of Roads and Transport will compact more than 100
old taxis on February 17, 2007 at Nelsville Stadium.
This is in a bid to implement the second phase of the government Taxi
Recapitalisation Project (TRP) that aims to replace old unsafe vehicles with
new, bigger and reliable mini and midi buses.
Upon surrender to the local scrapping centre which is based in White River,
a process of verification was conducted and the owners have been given the R50
000 scrapping allowance. Once all the processes are finalised, the vehicles are
compacted.
The onus is on the taxi operators whose vehicles have been de-registered
whether they wish to exit the industry or want to buy a vehicle that meets all
the set specifications in order to continue doing business within the taxi
industry.
The Department of Roads and Transport has thus far handled more than 5 000
applications submitted by keen taxi operators, indicating their intention for
their vehicles to be scrapped.
The department is working tirelessly to ensure the smooth running of the
scraping of the skorokoros.
The effective transport system and infrastructure are critical in increasing
the rate of investment in the First Economy and reducing the cost of doing
business.
Vehicles that meet the required specifications and certified by the South
African Bureau of Standards (SABS) were showcased in Free State last year in
October, and they include the:
*Toyota Quantum (14 seater)
*Nissan Interstar (15 seater)
*Fiat Ducato (15 seater)
*Mercedes Benz 308 CDI (16 seater)
*Peugeot Boxer HDI (16 seater).
Under the Midi-bus category:
*Mercedes Benz (22 seater)
*Marcopolo Volare short wheel base A8 (22 seater)
*Iveco 50c 14v15 (22 seater)
*Marcopolo Volare long wheel Base A8 (26 seater)
*Isuzu NQR 500 (35 seater)
*Tata Ubuntu (22 seater)
*Tata (26 seater).
Those operators who will not voluntary hand over their old and unroadworthy
vehicles will lose out in this process because their cars will be scrapped by
the province's law enforcement agencies and forfeit the R50 000 scrapping
allowance.
The department's Transport Inspectorate has already begun with its
operations to get rid of unroadworthy public transport vehicles on the
roads.
The media is invited to be part of the event. The event will take place as
follows:
First Session:
Date: 17 February 2007
Time: 09h00
Venue: White River Scrapping Site
Second Session:
Venue: Nelsville (Stadium)
Date: 17 February 2007
Time: 10h00
Enquires:
Mr David Nkambule
Tel: (013) 766 6887
Cell: 083 626 6306
Issued by: Department of Roads and Transport, Mpumalanga Provincial
Government
16 February 2007
