By Nangamso Mabindla
15 March 2004

The transport system in the impoverished township of Mdantsane is set to undergo an overhaul as the Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme gets underway.

Some 100 000 residents commute from the township to their workplaces in the centre of East London daily - 50 000 by taxi, 28 000 by bus and 22 000 by rail.

Various options were being investigated in order to upgrade the township's transport system, said the coordinator of the Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme, Councillor Sizwe Dikimolo, who recently returned from a fact-finding tour to Brazil. The councillor visited the city of Curitiba, which "is recognised as a world leader in the provision of urban transport".

"The expertise I received in Brazil will enable the Mdantsane Urban Renewal team to come up with a strategy to improve our public transport system," said Dikimolo.

The Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme is a R1-billion project aimed at changing the face of the impoverished township by supplying water and electricity to those not on the supply grids; upgrading old or obsolete pipe and cabling systems; and improving the township's roads and transport infrastructure.

Although the two cities were very different, the Curitiba experience "has significant lessons for the Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme", the councillor said.

In Curitiba, buses were the primary mode of transport, with rail and taxis in a secondary, complimentary, role. Some 30 000 buses transported seven million people daily, with a bus available to commuters every two minutes. To ease congestion dedicated lanes were allocated to buses.

"Commuters can transfer between buses and trains, using the same ticket," Councillor Dikimolo said. Pensioners and unemployed people travelled for free provided they registered their status and could provide proof. Scholars were subsidised, the councillor added.

"I was impressed with how the Curitiba transport structure was organised," said Dikimolo.

Although the primary transport providers in Mdantsane were taxis, supported by rail and buses, Dikimolo said he believed a similar structure to that in Curitiba could be used to improve the urban transportation in Mdantsane.

Many of the township's residents had problems with the current situation of public transport to the city, said the councillor. These included congested carriages on the trains, the cost of transport and no school buses running between the city and Mdantsane. "The Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme needs to address these problems," he said.

"For Mdantsane to be up there with the best residential areas in the country, the transport system needs to be revamped," the councillor said.