DURBAN TRANSPORT

“MZANSI” (SOUTH AFRICA) uniqueness of transport.

Durban Transport (DT): (Mr A. Mkhize) a daily transport user from a township called KwaMashu. It was a Friday around twelve when I went to town from “res” to buy some things I needed, we in a queue to a teller when we started a conversation about the queue being slowly. Out of the blue a guy behind me loudly said everything seems to be slow in Durban these days even the transport, he added on by saying that the municipality has no respect for them “how can they do such things, we are the ones who pay them I can’t understand how this happened cause we don’t buy the tickets on credit” meaning what their are currently experiencing. That is when I and Andile started talking about the Durban transport who was in front of me, when he said how disappointed he was after it was no longer available for him to use as a daily user.

Andile who works as a salesman in a furniture shop around Durban, who has been working there for 4 years has experienced this problem since he uses the transport. He’s complaints are no different from others.Andile uses both buses and taxis but the only problem is that he has no choice but to use a taxi when going for work because the only transport available in the morning are taxis around half five o’clock, bus stops are far from where he lives. He stated that the only advantage of using a bus is that the transport fee is quit reasonable apart from that most Durban buses are not comfortable and are totally unfriendly, time management has also been an issue.

Ever since he’s been using the same taxi at the same time almost everyday he meets the same people it was like a staff to them. Buses are not as available as before they have been limited to certain areas for instance in townships like KwaMashu where he lives. He claims that there are around ten buses in the whole area whereas before buses being used where about hundred and thus some people are now considering alternative transport but for him it has not been a problem since they negotiated with the driver they used every morning to make it official for him to pick them up.

Most people are considering taxis, trains etc, people are now experiencing problems since there are so many people resorting to using taxis. For some people the time management is affecting their social life’s getting from home to work and from work to home has become a frustrating encounter. Since there are long queues taxi drivers end up overloading the taxis, this affects the public in the sense that most of them tend to become aggressive like people swearing at each other. “Overloading causes accidents and increases the death rate in a short period of time” he exclaimed in a frustrated tone.

Apart from the issues mentioned above this has actually contributing to the informal business sector of taxi owners and also increasing their chances of owning more taxis. Since the taxi owners will be buying new taxis which are quantums and are the most comfortable public transport available currently this surely will benefit the daily users.