Rebuilding starts on wrecked MyCiTi stations
The City has started rebuilding three MyCiTi stations that were vandalised and destroyed a few years ago in Dunoon and Joe Slovo.
The announcement was made last week that the rebuilding of Dunoon Station, Freedom Station and Usasaza Station would begin on Tuesday September 10.
The three stations were wrecked in separate attacks during rioting in 2018 and again in 2020.
In June this year, the City said it would be rebuilding the stations (“Wrecked MyCiTi stations to be rebuilt,” Tabletalk, June 26).
According to mayoral committee member for urban mobility Rob Quintas, work started on Tuesday and would be completed by the end of November 2025, should everything go to plan.
“The MyCiTi bus stations in Dunoon, Usasaza and Phoenix, recently renamed Freedom Station, were vandalised and destroyed during the February 2018 protests. Unfortunately, these communities could not access the service at the stations for the past six years. As part of our service delivery mandate and our commitment to keep Cape Town moving, we are rebuilding the stations so that the communities can have easy access to the MyCiTi bus service. This reconstruction is also our way of responding to the current high commuter demand between Maitland and the Joe Slovo and Dunoon areas,” he said.
In 2018, Phoenix Station was stoned and torched along with two MyCiTi buses (“MyCiTi bears brunt of anger,” Tabletalk, May 18, 2018). The Usasaza Station was also stoned, torched and vandalised during the unrest. And in 2020, riots in Dunoon and Joe Slovo cost the City up to R8 million in damages when two buses and the Dunoon Station on Potsdam Road were stoned and set alight (“Protests cost City millions,” Tabletalk, June 24, 2020).
In the 2020 attack, a MyCiTi bus en route to the V&A Waterfront was stoned in Potsdam Road. The attackers told passengers to get out and then set it alight. Later that evening, another MyCiTi bus was set alight and gutted at the Omuramba Station, which was damaged by the fire.
Dunoon residents Joyce and Thando Makiwana said they looked forward to smoother trips to work once construction was finished.
“I am delighted that things are finally moving forward with this. It has been such a long wait for my family and I’m sure for many other residents in the community. We have struggled with transport over the last few years for travelling to work and for our children who have to go to school. And not just for work: we would often use the MyCiTi buses for family trips to town, the beach or nearby malls,” said Ms Makiwana.
“While we have had an operating makeshift station at the Stables, it is often more of a hassle having to walk all the way there. It is also not always safe in the streets having to cross the Potsdam Road, and there’s always a fear of getting mugged.”
Mr Makwana added: “I always imagine that if you take the bus at the Stables and then some people start protesting again for whatever reason, my family and other residents would be in danger. We know what happened the last time. Buses were stoned while passengers were inside. We didn’t want to risk our lives like that. So I pray that when the rebuilding is finished, there will be tougher security measures that will protect the passengers. I am looking forward to once again being able to use the bus for work and leisure.”
John Nels, of Table View, is less optimistic and described the project as a waste of taxpayers’ money.
“While I sympathise with residents that really want the MyCiTi service to be fully operational, there is always the underlying danger that these attacks will just continue. For example, as soon as there is a service-delivery protest, or maybe squatters get removed from invaded land, all hell breaks loose. And then what? People start attacking government property. This is just a waste of money. Money that could be used for other services in the community. This is not a classism thing from my side. But how many times can we keep making the same mistakes?”
The City refused to say how much the project would cost citing “safety and extortion concerns”.
