The movement of road users remains restricted despite the easing of lockdown regulations to allow for thousands of mense to return to work.
On Friday, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula announced updated regulations which stipulate the kind of travel allowed under level 4 restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
These include:
* Buses and trains can now run throughout the day from 5am to 8pm with 70% passengers.
* Metrorail cannot operate.
* No travel between provinces, aside from the seven-day grace period for people returning home for work purposes.
* No domestic or international flights permitted to operate.
* Shuttle and chauffeur services will be allowed to operate.
* Delivery services such as Uber Eats, Mr D Food and others are permitted to operate between 9am and 7pm only for delivery of food.
“With the country moving to level 4 and more people returning to work, we have revised the operating hours for all road-based public transport modes,” said Mbalula.
“However no public transport is allowed to operate during the curfew. And no person is allowed to use public transport without a mask on.”
While Metrorail is not operating, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa will allegedly carry out essential work to ensure that the rail network is ready to operate once it is allowed to return.
“With trains the concern has always been congestion, we are dealing with that issue now and as such Prasa is readying itself by ramping up testing in corridors like the Central Line and Mabopane,” he explained.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula Picture: GCIS
With the Department of Education preparing to reopen schools in June, the readying of scholar transport and Metrorail is necessary to allow for the safe travel for pupils.
“It is going to be very difficult to maintain that 70% capacity for school children if we want to get them to school. When the schools reopen, trains must run. We have opened for transport to operate until the curfew kicks in. Even scholar transport is corrupted to the bone, people making cents at the expense of our children. That scholar transport must be corrected, but it must ready when schools reopen,” said Mbalula.
Spokesperson for the provincial South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) Gershwin Geyer said while they were happy to provide a service, operators were struggling financially.
“The government is promising us sanitisers, but they supplied us with a consignment three times in the last month and a half but that ran out over a week ago, and we spoke to the provincial department and they said they had no stock and would engage with their sponsors,” he said.
“We are also waiting on the relief that was promised; there has been no feedback on how members will be compensated.”
Mbabula said they were working on a plan to support the taxi industry and as soon as a modelling is approved by the president and Cabinet, he would announce it.
Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma announced a once-off seven-day grace period for people to move without documentation between provinces to return to work from May 1-7.