A deal expected to create more than 14 000 jobs in the Eastern Cape was signed on Monday.
Parties involved – the Eastern Cape Transport Tertiary Cooperative (ECTTC) and Sprout Fuels, an oil and gas wholesaler – entered into a 10-year agreement deal at the East London Golf Club in an initiative aimed at transforming the transport industry.
The event was attended by representatives of taxi and bus organisations, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) and officials from the provincial department of transport.
The deal would result in the construction of depots also known as “taxi and bus stops” across towns in the province where taxi and buses would be refueled.
This comes after 160 primary cooperatives in the taxi and bus sector came together to form a provincial structure ECTTC, which has representatives from regions or secondary cooperatives.
ECTTC chief executive Nokuthula Mbebe said the decision to form the structure was a result of a process that was undertaken by the provincial transport department in 2010 to encourage the taxi and bus industry to form co-ops.
“Co-ops will formalise the industry and enable us to get contracts in government. This deal is bigger than the scholar transport one. We are talking about a multibillion-rand agreement which will benefit both the taxi and bus industry, including Sprout.”
Mbele said their members would get a discount of R1.16 in petrol and R1.22 for diesel per litre from Sprout.
“We have been trying to enter in such agreements for years with retailers but our attempts were unsuccessful. Sprout Fuels has been our Samaritan. They approached us and led to this event today.”
Mbele said government was also involved in the project. Transport Education Training Authority Seta had pumped R3.9-million into the training of the co-ops and drivers and the department of trade and industry had allocated R30-million.
Buffalo City College was going to train professional drivers.
Mbele said individual taxi and bus operators had a choice to opt out of co-ops and not be involved in the process.
However, she warned that those opting out were in danger of being left out of government contracts and that driving permits were likely in future to be handed over by provincial transport authorities to co-ops.
Mbele said the deal would create 6597 permanent job opportunities in the form of petrol attendance, cleaners and depot managers.
She said a further 7800 temporary jobs were expected to be created in the construction phase.
Sprout Fuels chief executive Vuyo Maliti said the company had a licence to operate and that 40 pilot sites from 86 towns had already been identified for the construction of depots.
The initial phase of the project will kick-start in the Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela metros, OR Tambo and Butterworth.
Work on these sites was expected to be completed after six months.
Each depot is expected to have accommodation and overnight facilities, food outlets, auto-mechanics and a service centre.
Maliti said the company had similar agreements with suppliers of fuel and that Transnet was also on board.
“We are going to build these facilities and the taxi and bus industry are going to be the owners. During the construction phase, labour will be sourced locally, as well as specialists for critical jobs.”
She said it was the responsibility of ECTTC to identify sites for construction as the industry was better positioned to lobby local municipalities.
Provincial transport department senior manager Bhelu Melane said this was a culmination of the department’s efforts to transform the transport industry in the province.
Melane said the move had a potential to set a precedent for other provinces to benchmark the developments. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za
EC taxi, bus co-ops in pipeline
Parties involved – the Eastern Cape Transport Tertiary Cooperative (ECTTC) and Sprout Fuels, an oil and gas wholesaler – entered into a 10-year agreement deal at the East London Golf Club in an initiative aimed at transforming the transport industry.
The event was attended by representatives of taxi and bus organisations, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) and officials from the provincial department of transport.
The deal would result in the construction of depots also known as “taxi and bus stops” across towns in the province where taxi and buses would be refueled.
This comes after 160 primary cooperatives in the taxi and bus sector came together to form a provincial structure ECTTC, which has representatives from regions or secondary cooperatives.
ECTTC chief executive Nokuthula Mbebe said the decision to form the structure was a result of a process that was undertaken by the provincial transport department in 2010 to encourage the taxi and bus industry to form co-ops.
“Co-ops will formalise the industry and enable us to get contracts in government. This deal is bigger than the scholar transport one. We are talking about a multibillion-rand agreement which will benefit both the taxi and bus industry, including Sprout.”
Mbele said their members would get a discount of R1.16 in petrol and R1.22 for diesel per litre from Sprout.
“We have been trying to enter in such agreements for years with retailers but our attempts were unsuccessful. Sprout Fuels has been our Samaritan. They approached us and led to this event today.”
Mbele said government was also involved in the project. Transport Education Training Authority Seta had pumped R3.9-million into the training of the co-ops and drivers and the department of trade and industry had allocated R30-million.
Buffalo City College was going to train professional drivers.
Mbele said individual taxi and bus operators had a choice to opt out of co-ops and not be involved in the process.
However, she warned that those opting out were in danger of being left out of government contracts and that driving permits were likely in future to be handed over by provincial transport authorities to co-ops.
Mbele said the deal would create 6597 permanent job opportunities in the form of petrol attendance, cleaners and depot managers.
She said a further 7800 temporary jobs were expected to be created in the construction phase.
Sprout Fuels chief executive Vuyo Maliti said the company had a licence to operate and that 40 pilot sites from 86 towns had already been identified for the construction of depots.
The initial phase of the project will kick-start in the Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela metros, OR Tambo and Butterworth.
Work on these sites was expected to be completed after six months.
Each depot is expected to have accommodation and overnight facilities, food outlets, auto-mechanics and a service centre.
Maliti said the company had similar agreements with suppliers of fuel and that Transnet was also on board.
“We are going to build these facilities and the taxi and bus industry are going to be the owners. During the construction phase, labour will be sourced locally, as well as specialists for critical jobs.”
She said it was the responsibility of ECTTC to identify sites for construction as the industry was better positioned to lobby local municipalities.
Provincial transport department senior manager Bhelu Melane said this was a culmination of the department’s efforts to transform the transport industry in the province.
Melane said the move had a potential to set a precedent for other provinces to benchmark the developments. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za
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