Government's 'family silver' might be going, but eThekwini's municipal transport service has definitely gone.
The public transport utility that once served Durban and its surrounding areas for decades has finally been privatised, ending years of speculation and uncertainty over the future of public transport in the city.
A privately run consortium Remant/Alton has been awarded the tender to operate eThekwini's transport services amidst media reports that the tender process was flawed and favoured a consortium headed by former ANC provincial executive member Dr Diliza Mji.
While a popular Sunday newspaper questioned the credibility of one of the applicants that was part of the winning consortium, eThekwini city manager and former ANC provincial legislature member Dr Mike Sutcliffe, was adamant that the process was irreversible and that the winning bidder complied with all the necessary procedures.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) issued a statement strongly condemning the decision of the Executive Committee of eThekwini Unicity to award the transport contract to a private bidder.
At the same time the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) also expressed reservations about the move to privatise public transport. Samwu's provincial secretary in KwaZulu-Natal, Richard Hlophe says that the move will have a negative impact on commuters, even though the Unicity will subsidise the new owners to the tune of some R186 million per annum.
Hlophe also says that the tender was based on routes giving the company access to control some of the busiest routes in Durban , particularly those leading to the townships.
Retrenched workers were given a package (3 weeks pay per year of service) while the overall agreement provided for outsourcing of all remaining services within the transport department. Cleaning services, workshops, human resources and information technology are some of the services that will be taken over either by workers (workers buy-in) or subcontracted to outside providers.
According to Hlophe, transport is not the only area that is being privatised. “Plumbing services – repairs to broken water pipes have been outsourced. There is even the use of temporary employment services to provide clerks in some instances to carry out civic duties.
These are all part and parcel of the eThekwini Unicity's strategy to cut down on employment and save on expensesâ€, says Hlophe. While it appears that the ANC-led government's attempts to privatise state owned assets on a national level have slowed down, this is not the case at a local level where privatisation is being fast tracked in place of public-owned utilities.
In this context the national debate is rendered meaningless as the state disposes more and more of its assets through local private initiatives and partnerships.
* Woody Aroun is Numsa's KZN regional education officer.
Source
Numsa News