Transport as usual at Oceans Mall in Umhlanga after minibus taxi blockade

Minibus taxis operating in Umhlanga are picking up and dropping passengers behind the Oceans Mall as usual, South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) KwaZulu-Natal officer manager Sifiso Shangase said on Thursday.

“This will be until next Tuesday when the discussions will continue. The city and the developer requested to find one another on the issue,” he said.

A tense stand-off over where taxis can park developed on Tuesday, with an estimated 400 taxis blocking entrances to the village.

This was after a “soft rollout” of a new temporary rank on land owned by the developers of the mall at its northern end and an attempt to limit the number of taxis by putting up barriers in the road where they have been parking since the mall opened in December.

Shangase told TimesLIVE the mall had been built on land which previously housed a taxi rank. Santaco believed the developers were supposed to build an underground facility to replace this. “But the developer then sang another tune.”

He said taxis had been parking along the road until the barricades were erected “either by the municipality or the developer” on Tuesday.

“The taxis want to use the mall [parking] as a holding area, but the other party doesn’t want it.

“We blame the municipality because it was supposed to have foresight in transport, and when the developer reneged on [building the rank], the city must come up with a plan.

“I also blame the developer. He agreed a rank was going to be built and then he was no longer interested in it. Both parties reneged on the agreement.”

Shangase said the peaceful blockade was to “get their attention”. While Santaco wanted an amicable solution, it would approach the courts if necessary.

Dr Dhes Mari, chairperson of Beacon Rock, a mixed-use development across the road from Oceans Mall, said the business community and residents had been engaged in discussions about the issue for a year.

While the taxi associations had only been involved in the public engagements, “we were assured by the developers [and] eThekwini they were being engaged in the background.

“There’s been a polarising narrative that the citizens of Umhlanga resented the presence of the taxis and wanted to have them ejected from the village. This has strong and deliberately peddled [but baseless] racial undertones. 

“Our engagements with the developers and the municipality have highlighted the plight of disempowered commuters, and this is on record but has fallen on deaf ears,” Mari said.

In October last year, before the opening of the mall, two property owners in an application in the Durban high court attempted to stop the opening and freeze further development because the developers had not built the below-ground transport hub.

The developers opposed the application and it was adjourned.

It emerged in court papers that the underground facility was part of the approval process given to Oceans, which was developed by Vivian Reddy and Rob Alexander.

At one point, Oceans approached the city requesting funding, about R127m, to build it. This was approved by the council but the funding was never provided because it was not budgeted for.

Oceans CEO Brian Mpono said this week the responsibility for public transport lies with the municipality, not the private developers.

He said, however, to resolve the dispute Oceans had provided a temporary solution on its own initiative.

City spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said at the “fruitful engagement” on Wednesday the representatives of the Greater North Taxi Association said they were aggrieved by the barricading of the area by the developers.

Metro police spokesperson Col Boysie Zungu acknowledged both views from the association and developers, and that the mall cannot operate without workers and the workers cannot come to work without public transport.

Another concern raised by the association was that previous solutions did not suit them as they required additional space for more vehicles. They also noted the building plans did not make provision for a proper taxi rank area, saying there are 13 other taxi associations operating in the precinct.  

“eThekwini Transport Authority will meet developers to find a solution,” she said.

TimesLIVE