The MyCiTi bus service will be temporarily reinstated from Table View for the Bon Jovi and Justin Bieber concerts.
|||Cape Town - The MyCiTi bus service will be temporarily reinstated from Table View for the Bon Jovi and Justin Bieber concerts at Cape Town Stadium tomorrow and Wednesday night.
Bus drivers have been striking for more than two weeks, causing MyCiTi and Golden Arrow to suspend their services.
City spokeswoman Kylie Hatton said today that a Table View MyCiTi service will run from 2pm tomorrow until midnight on Wednesday. She described the service as a special “event bus” which would not be “normal public transport”, thus not undermining the bus drivers’ strike. Other MyCiTi services would not be reinstated, but city-run shuttle services from Hout Bay and UCT would operate as usual for stadium events, said Hatton.
Hatton said extra security measures would be in place to protect passengers, staff, and vehicles from potential attacks by strikers.
She said Myconnect card holders who wanted to use the MyCiTi service needed to use their cards to book in advance.
Regular MyCiTi bus drivers, employed by vehicle operating company Kidrogen, would be driving the buses to the stadium.
Isaac Kutama, deputy chairman for the bus sector in the South African Transport And Allied Workers Union (Satawu), said today that the union had not received notice on the “event service” and could not comment.
Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing Grant Pascoe asked concert goers to arrive early and to co-operate with traffic officials before and after the two concerts.
“We’re asking concert goers to arrive early if they are using their own transport. Otherwise, we would suggest that people use the trains and the fan walk to get to the stadium,” Pascoe said.
Meanwhile, unions have confirmed that they have a proposal ready to take to the bargaining council today.
Satawu spokesman Vincent Masoga said he could not announce the details of the proposal before unions met at noon today.
The Transport and Omnibus Workers Union (Towu), will be at that meeting. Unions and employers have been deadlocked in wage negotiations since the beginning of the year.
A strike by bus drivers and support staff began a little over two weeks ago.
Unions are demanding a 13 percent raise and employers have so far offered 7.5 percent and 8 percent hikes for respective income brackets.
Golden Arrow spokeswoman Bronwen Dyke said that clip cardholders would have the valid dates on their cards extended for use on the buses once services were resumed.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus