Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia- 2016/05/24

Hundreds of learners commute to Lenasia from Soweto and surrounding areas in the hope of better education unlocking a brighter and a more prosperous future.

Learners travel daily in taxis and other forms of transport and this has been brought to the attention of authorities.

After thorough deliberation, The City of Johannesburg in partnership with local government have looked at ways to ensure learners safety and security and have proposed to build a ‘taxi learner exchange facility’.

This will see school transport drivers using the parking bay as a pick up point for learners.

However, some residents of Lenasia have expressed deep dissatisfaction and feel they haven’t been consulted.

Yusuf Ahmed Bulbulia from the Lenasia Active Citizenry’s forum says the construction will not only affect people who live in the area, but it will also affect people who use the roads in the vicinity.

“People in Lenasia and people coming out of Lenasia will be affected, if we take Abu Bakr Asvat Drive for example: Presently, if a vehicle gets stuck on that road, there is congestion, hence the roads will not be able to accommodate the facility.”

ANC ward councillor Zareena Motala says this is not a ‘taxi rank’.

“This is only a scholar exchange that we going to see every morning and afternoon, it’s not your normal taxi rank that does your internal taxi runs or Soweto runs, this is completely for the scholars.”

Bulbulia says they support the idea of the facility; however the area whereby it’s being constructed is a problem.

“Being near the masjid, taking away our parks, there are trees that have been there for thirty to fourty years, they’ve uprooted them, throwing them on the side.”

Motala says not everyone is opposed to the construction of the facility in the area.

“When we say everyone, what do we mean? We look at a percentage of people in the community and who are the stakeholders to know who is unhappy. People have raised their dissatisfaction at the meeting held last night on a few issues, but we are of the view that it is a much needed facility.”

She says what’s currently happening in Extension 1 is totally unacceptable, especially on the corner of Abu Bakr Asvat Drive and the Flamingo Street / Nirvana Road areas.

Bulbulia says one of the residents brought up a very pertinent issue regarding safety at last night’s meeting.

“If all the taxi people are going to park there, we going to have ten to twelve thousand scholars, it’s going to become a huge problem to look after them which compromises safety and it’s just going to cause havoc.”

Motala says once the taxis have exchanged the learners, only seventy taxis will be allowed to park there with no children in them during the day.

“There will be ablution facilities; we also considered the masjid area which is at the back of the facility, we also know that there is no salaah at seven in the morning and three in the afternoon.”

However, she says that their concern is with the Jummah salaah, but they will make sure that there is strict control during those times.

“I have personally on some occasions went to Extension 1 and stopped any music being played at 12o’clock, and I think that it is all of our responsibility to make sure that there is no music being played while the Jummah salaah is on.”

Bulbulia says residents of Lenasia were not entirely informed and the process surrounding the facility has not been fair and transparent.

“Only after it was really done, it was told to residents of Lenasia that the scholar exchange facility is going to come up, before that, there was no consultation with residents at all.”

There was a meeting at the Old Age Home in Lenasia a while back, however Bulbulia says this was only after everything was approved for the project.

Motala says any fears related to crime in the area will be allayed as the City of Joburg will be providing twenty-four hour security at the facility and the park which is going to be upgraded.

“There is going to be twenty-four hour security, which should dispel any fears, currently the community all over Lenasia is playing a very crucial role with security companies and patrollers doing whatever we can to curb crime, not only in particular extensions.”

The facility has been budgeted for and forms part of the R 15 million allocated to Lenasia for infrastructure development.

From that, R 500 000 will be directed to fixing the Lenasia Avalon Cemetry and R 1.5 million set aside for the development of the Cricket Stadium.

A meeting is scheduled to take place at the Nurul Islam Hall in Extension 5 Lenasia tomorrow at 8pm and all citizens have been encouraged to attend.

Twitter: @thedabhelia