The Executive Committee of the eThekwini Municipality says it is happy with the progress made towards implementing a municipal entity that will provide a public transport bus service to Durban.

A report on the matter, which was tabled this week, stated that given the number of operational challenges that have been experienced since the privatisation of the Durban Transport bus service in 2003, the review of the Durban Transport bus service delivery mechanism was identified as necessary to address the challenges.

“The delivery of a bus service function through Durban Transport plays a key role in the mobility of residents as approximately 50 000 commuters rely solely on the bus service daily,” the municipality notes.

Municipal entity to manage the service

According to the report on 13 August 2015, the eThekwini Municipal Council resolved to approve the proposal of providing the Durban public transport bus service through an external mechanism in the form of a municipal entity.

The municipality says this resolution has been undertaken in compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and the necessary assessment was done by the municipality and its outcomes were published in the public notice.

The precise functions and services that the municipal entity would perform on behalf of the municipality, according to the report, are to manage the municipal buses, drivers and other operational staff as well as to provide the bus service in line with the set routes and timetables, including the provision of special hire of the buses.

Finalising the court matter

Deputy City Manager of Finance Krish Kumar says a board of directors would be established as a municipal entity to manage the service.

Thami Manyathi, head of the eThekwini Transport Authority says the court matter between the City and the bus operator has not been resolved. However, he adds that it was unlikely that the formation of the municipal entity would affect the court matter.

“We are close to finalising all matters relating to the case with a full report on how we will be wrapping it up as well as how we will be implementing the municipal entity being done,” he says.