Will Thohoyandou’s R250 million white elephant finally be fixed?

By Maanda Bele

A delegation led by the head of the department at the Limpopo Department of Transport and Community Safety, Mr Stephen Matjena, visited the controversial Thohoyandou taxi rank last Wednesday (25th) to assess the state of the facility.

The purpose of the visit was to determine the steps that would be needed to complete the facility and get the taxi rank operational.

The taxi rank was renovated at a cost of over R250 million 11 years ago, but the project was never completed. Construction work at the taxi rank commenced in 2011 and was scheduled to be completed in 2013. The project was supposed to make provision for retail space, office blocks, 65 taxi loading bays on the ground and 160 bays on the first floor.

For the past couple of years, the taxi rank has been the haven of criminals and prostitutes.

Many people, including political parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA), complained about the taxi rank’s not opening. In November last year, the DA issued a statement revealing that R6 million earmarked for the completion of the taxi rank facility had been returned to Treasury.

“The other major issue that contributed to the delay of the opening of the taxi rank facility was that the Limpopo Department of Transport and Community Safety had failed to acquire approved building plans and architect drawings required for an occupation certificate. There were also issues in finding a suitable contractor for the remedial construction work, a lack of capacity of the contractor appointed to do the remedial construction as well as the contractor’s non-compliance to health and safety regulations,” said the DA’s Katlego Suzan Phala.