The North West Department of community Safety and Transport Management (COSATMA) is confident that the North West Division of the High Court in Mahikeng will rule in its favour, dismissing an appeal application filed by the Atamelang Bus Company, interdicting it from appointing a new service provider to restore commuter bus services in the Ngaka Modiri Molema district in Mahikeng. MEC Wessels Morweng told YOUFM Newshour during a special broadcast in Mahikeng that a protracted legal battle will end on Friday after a court decision.
“I’m confident that we will emerge victorious, because from where we are seated, we know that the department did nothing wrong. The bus company was unable to render services to the government as per the agreement. I must clarify this matter, Atamelang is not a government company, I also thought it’s a government owned before I was appointed the MEC.But it’s because it has been rendering services for far too long which I think it’s one of the things that made them to become complacent, because they were complacent in my view and like I have indicated I do not tolerate mediocrity, there’s no mediocrity in our vocabulary,” vowed Morweng.
The company has failed to render services in the district since December last year, due what is believed to be operational challenges, which have left thousands of commuters stranded. Morweng defended his decision to terminate the company’s contract with the department and to appoint a new service provider.
“There’s nothing wrong we have done as the department, because there’s a clause in the contract that we have signed with them that permits us to terminate them once they fail to perform to the best of our expectation and that’s what we have done. People have always been clear to us as government that when someone is contracted to build a road, and he’s found to be doing shoddy work, the person must be terminated with immediate effect, when a person delivers unsatisfactory work like in this instance in transportation action must be taken. Commuters, bus drivers and general workers came to my office, and the government could not turn a blind eye on those people,” explained the MEC.
Meanwhile, Morweng has also vowed to restore the two provincial airports in Mahikeng and Pilanesberg to their former glory.The two airports have not been operational for years, despite funds set aside to resuscitate them.
“I guess this is one of the things that our people are eager to hear as to what plans the government has, to resolve this matter because as you can realize we are the only province in the country that doesn’t have functional airports. There are plans to turn the GD Montshioa airport in Mahikeng into a cargo logistics hub to help relieve our roads of traffic congestion due to a high volume of truck traffic as you know that we are neighbouring other southern African countries such as Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Secondly plans are afoot at the Pilanesberg airport near Mogwase in the Moses Kotane local municipality, as part of the upcoming G20 summit in November this year,” assured Morweng.
The MEC who is also responsible for the Community Safety portfolio, has commended the police in the province in reducing all categories of crime as per the last quarter of the current financial year.
“Stock theft remains a stubborn crime that is growing at an alarming rate in the province particularly in the Taung area where farmers are targeted, attacked and torched as you would have seen some time last week. We have since sought the assistance of the national department of police to address the matter, and we are hopeful that in the next quarterly report stats will indicate how far we have gone in addressing this challenge,” concluded the optimistic MEC.
