MEC rejects bike lane comments

Xolani Koyana

Transport and Public Works MEC Robin Carlisle has rejected Cosatu firebrand Tony Ehrenreich's comments over the recently launched dedicated bicycle lanes as “ironic” and hypocritical.

Carlisle also blamed him and the ANC for the appalling conditions of city trains.

Ehrenreich said the dedicated bicycle lanes that form part of the MyCiTi public transport system were for wealthy white citizens, while poorer communities on the Cape Flats were subjected to over-crowded and unsafe public transport.

The lanes run from Woodbridge Island in Milnerton to the city centre.

Carlisle accused Ehrenreich of concealing the ANC’s failure to improve the train services and said that he and Cosatu should take political responsibility for the appaling state of public transport, particularly passenger rail services. “He knows very well that the root cause of the problems that bedevil Metrorail today is the ANC-led government’s failure to make significant, if not any, investment in improving passengers rail infrastructure and services since 1994.

“He and his colleagues in the tripartite alliance should take full responsibility for the daily degradation of human rights of hundreds of thousands of South Africans – who are dependent solely on trains for transport – due to overcrowding in trains and criminal activities around train stations,” Carlisle said.

“The cycle lanes he has been quick to condemn have been built, with the City of Cape Town, to bolster cycling safety as part of an integrated approach to offering all Capetonians real public transport.”

The Cosatu provincial secretary had failed to use his “massive” influence in the tripartite alliance to pressure the National Minister of Transport to invest in new trains for Metrorail and rehabilitating old railway lines, Carlisle said.

“For instance, Metrorail in the Western Cape needs at least a minimum of 35 additional trains to be able provide a decent rail services to commuters. It is high time that Mr Ehrenreich stopped shooting from the hip in the debate on public transport and starts doing something meaningful about it.”

Responding to Ehrenreich’s statements, mayoral committee member for transport Elizabeth Thompson said there were lanes dedicated to cycling in poor communities in Gugulethu, Athlone and Belhar.

A Cape Times team went to Gugulethu to monitor the cycling lane. It runs along NY1 with markings and signs indicating it is dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists.

In the 40 minutes the team monitored the lane not a single bicycle went by but Melvin Mqalo, who lives nearby said it was used mostly in the morning and when residents were returning from work.

Riding on the N2, Gugulethu resident Wonga Mazanga uses his bicycle nearly daily to get to work in the city centre and to visit friends in Langa. He said the cycling lane was a good idea but not everyone could enjoy it.

“On my side of Gugulethu in New Rest we don’t have these lanes. I think the government should make a plan to extend these lanes so that we could travel to town knowing we are safe,” Mazanga said.

xolani.koyana@inl.co.za