The Mercury of Wednesday, September 24, 2008, reports that Remant Alton (our lovely bus company) has fired over 350 bus drivers for participating in an illegal strike. The strike was precipitated by Deputy City Manager Derek Naidoo's article on the background to the ongoing bus debacle which I reported here.
The drivers were reported in Wednesday's Mercury as saying that they did not want to work for Remant Alton, because of its history of financial mismanagement, and that they would prefer to work for the municpality. Naidoo replied to the drivers by saying that the munipality was not in a position to take them on. I can imagine how that soothed the drivers' passions.
The Mercury of today, September 25, 2008, reports that Remant Alton was to use trainee drivers and advertise for new staff in an attempt to beat the strike.
The comment was made along the way by Naidoo that the city could not break its contract with Remant Alton unless it defaulted. So why buy the buses from the company? The best course would have been to let it go bust and for the municpality to take over the bus service. It seems to me to be the height of folly to buy the buses back from them but, despite their poor history, let them still run the service.
There are few details available as yet but city management have come up with what seems like another harebrained scheme. This time they have some notion of getting the minibus taxi operators involved in the running of the bus service once remant Alton's contract expires in late 2010. More details as and when...
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
King Dinuzulu unwrapped
By now now King Dinuzulu should have been unwrapped on his plinth facing Louis Botha in Botha Gardens at the bottom of Berea Road. Ooops! I mean King Dinuzulu Road, of course. I took a swing past the gardens on Friday morning to find that the King had been removed from his hessian, cleaned, and re-wrapped in plastic and packing tape in readiness for the formal unveiling the following day.
The king on his plinth across the park from Louis Botha who was first the first prime minister of the union of South and who released him from prison. In the background are the Technikon buildings.
Also in the the park, to practice for the parade on Saturday, were the State President's Guard. They looked smart enough but why not one our local regiments like the Durban Light Infantry, for example. There's more politics there, I'll be bound.
The ceremony on Saturday was also to formally rename Berea Road after the King.
The king on his plinth across the park from Louis Botha who was first the first prime minister of the union of South and who released him from prison. In the background are the Technikon buildings.
Also in the the park, to practice for the parade on Saturday, were the State President's Guard. They looked smart enough but why not one our local regiments like the Durban Light Infantry, for example. There's more politics there, I'll be bound.
The ceremony on Saturday was also to formally rename Berea Road after the King.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Strike on the buses
An article in the council mouthpiece Ezasegagasini Metro, which accompanied the Mercury on Friday, September 19, 2008, had an unintended consequence when it caused an impromptu strike among staff members of Remant Alton, the company which sort of runs our bus service. The article was written by Deputy City Manager Derek Naidoo and was intended to lay to rest the puzzlement felt by most citizens when it was learnt that that the bus service had originally been been sold to Remant Alton for R70-million and was being bought back for a R405 million.
Naidoo pointed out that included in the deal were many buses that had been bought by Remant Alton since acquiring the service. He said that the R405-million purchase price included 514 of Remant Alton's best buses and some equipment.He said that the municipality would buy a further 162 new buses which would all be leased back to Remant Alton until their contract expired in 2010. The operation of the bus service will then be farmed out to a number of smaller operators. Crucially, the article said that the deal applied only to buses and equipment and not Remant Alton staff. Accordingly, many of them went on strike leaving commuters stranded, as reported here in the Independent Online. It's not yet clear what the outcome will be.
Dear Derek: I said before the last sale that it would be a mistake to privatise the bus service. Farming it out to small operators would be another mistake! Public transport is not something that can be done really well at a profit.
Naidoo pointed out that included in the deal were many buses that had been bought by Remant Alton since acquiring the service. He said that the R405-million purchase price included 514 of Remant Alton's best buses and some equipment.He said that the municipality would buy a further 162 new buses which would all be leased back to Remant Alton until their contract expired in 2010. The operation of the bus service will then be farmed out to a number of smaller operators. Crucially, the article said that the deal applied only to buses and equipment and not Remant Alton staff. Accordingly, many of them went on strike leaving commuters stranded, as reported here in the Independent Online. It's not yet clear what the outcome will be.
Dear Derek: I said before the last sale that it would be a mistake to privatise the bus service. Farming it out to small operators would be another mistake! Public transport is not something that can be done really well at a profit.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A good decongestant?
It all came on very suddenly but I ended up in Ireland for a couple of days last week and reinforced the affection I have felt for the place since I first set foot there in 2001. I am also more convinced than ever that Guinness really is good for me!
What has all this to do with a blog concerned largely with happenings in Durban? Well, both Durban and Dublin have been suffering from traffic congestion and, in particular, from container trucks travelling to and from the harbour. Both cities have harbours pretty close to the centre of town which has the potential to cause great congestion. This has happened in Durban's case, as we all know well, but the Irish have more or less solved the problem by digging a whacking great tunnel from the port, under the city, to the freeway. You don't see the trucks in town any more and its a great help. The job must have huge but it was completed and opened since I left in 2001. Here some more information about Dublin Port Tunnel and here's a video of it, courtesy of YouTube.
I was lucky enough to be driven through it because it is also a great shortcut for cars going to the airport. I wasn't lucky enough to have a ride of the other new transport innovation to come to Dublin. When I was last there, there was some talk of building a tram system to cut traffic congestion. The tram, known as the Luas, now has two lines running into the city and offers cheap fast transport. Here's video of it, again courtesy of YouTube.
What has all this to do with a blog concerned largely with happenings in Durban? Well, both Durban and Dublin have been suffering from traffic congestion and, in particular, from container trucks travelling to and from the harbour. Both cities have harbours pretty close to the centre of town which has the potential to cause great congestion. This has happened in Durban's case, as we all know well, but the Irish have more or less solved the problem by digging a whacking great tunnel from the port, under the city, to the freeway. You don't see the trucks in town any more and its a great help. The job must have huge but it was completed and opened since I left in 2001. Here some more information about Dublin Port Tunnel and here's a video of it, courtesy of YouTube.
I was lucky enough to be driven through it because it is also a great shortcut for cars going to the airport. I wasn't lucky enough to have a ride of the other new transport innovation to come to Dublin. When I was last there, there was some talk of building a tram system to cut traffic congestion. The tram, known as the Luas, now has two lines running into the city and offers cheap fast transport. Here's video of it, again courtesy of YouTube.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
No corruption here!
President Mbeki, speaking at the Naval Review mentioned in the previous post, declared that there was no corruption involved in the acquisition of frigates and submarines for the SA Navy. Hmmmm. Well, that will likely never be proved one way or the other, but there was certainly stupidity involved in the purchase. Quite apart from the fact that the weapons seemed far too sophisticated for any enemy we are likely to encounter, it has recently emerged that the navy is after new patrol boats and the inference is that they can't afford to run the new frigates
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)