Sne Masuku

Sne Masuku

eThekwini municipality manager Mike Sutcliffe says he will not entertain "debating in the media" about bus company Remant Alton.

The company knew what was expected of it and that the council had sent it a legal letter to which it "should respond", Sutcliffe said.

The bus company should also "remedy the breach" of a section of their contract with the city, he said, adding that the council had not terminated Remant's contract but had served it with a 14-day notice last week.

He said the contract requires Remant to provide a stable service of mechanically sound buses for commuters and to address labour-related issues.

Sutcliffe was responding to Remant Alton's Paul Rush's claims that "the council" should fix the faulty fleet before services could be resumed.

Sutcliffe, when asked whose responsibility it was to fix the buses, declined to comment.

In response to Sowetan's article that an estimated three million commuters across the city had been left stranded, Sutcliffe disputed the figure, saying Remant Alton had never transported that number of commuters - even during peak periods.

"Normal passenger trips carried out by Durban Transport from Monday to Friday, before the current state of affairs, would have been 45000 commuters a day," said Sutcliffe.

Meanwhile, the council is in talks with the taxi industry on coming up with a plan to transport the area's commuters.