The good news for shoppers commuting to Menlyn Park Shopping Centre in taxis is that they will no longer be dropped off on the streets and left to be exposed to harsh weather conditions in the event of heavy rains.
They will, instead, be dropped off at the entrance of the new taxi rank located inside the mall, where they will also board taxis to transport them back home.
This was shared by the mall general manager, Nisha Kemraj, who spoke to the Pretoria News during the official opening of the Menlyn Park Shopping Centre taxi rank yesterday.
She said 60% of shoppers commute to the mall on a daily basis and a large component of them are staff coming from the surrounding areas.
She said customers won’t have to alight on the street and walk over to the mall as they will be dropped off inside the centre.
The initial design of the mall, she said, was built incorrectly in that it only accommodated private cars and not public transport for commuters.
“As rightfully shown by the statistics, commuters are the lifeline of our economy and we have to give them dignified access into our shopping centre. That is why this taxi facility is so important to us,” she said.
The facility has the holding area for 165 taxis, 40 taxis in the ranking space and service over 400 taxis from both Menlyn and the Mamelodi amalgamated taxi associations.
Kemraj said the initiative of a taxi facility was first conceived in 2016 when the shopping centre expanded with a R2.5 billion to become a mega mall.
“In that process they have built the lowest avenue taxi rank, which is about 40 bays. The challenge that the team experienced at that point was that the taxi owners and the facility were not managed correctly in terms of size and customer requirement. So we created a bit of discontent with the taxi owners,” she said.
The process of bringing taxi owners on board, she said, has been ongoing since 2016.
“For the last two to three years just after Covid, we re-engaged the City and the taxi associations with a view to say let’s redesign. We didn’t want our customers right on the streets and be exposed to harsh weather like the rains. The world-class cities have taxi rank facilities within the mall design,” she said.
Tshwane mayor Cilliers said the municipality facilitated the construction of an additional taxi holding area inside the mall to avoid illegal taxi holding mainly on Lois Avenue.
“Menlyn Park Shopping Centre now boasts two taxi facilities that will accommodate around 135 standard minibus taxis and 18 larger long-distance midi-buses. The City of Tshwane is very proud to have brokered the deal between the shopping centre and the local taxi associations. This milestone signals the end of the disorder that has characterised the intersection of Atterbury Road and Lois Avenue for years,” he said.
He warned that the Tshwane metro police will enforce by-laws by clamping down on those likely to continue with illegal taxi holding outside the mall.
Ben Moredi, chairperson of Mamelodi Amalgamated taxi association thanked the municipality for working together with taxis to provide proper services to commuters.
“As the taxi industry we are here today because of the support of the commuters. If we don’t consider commuters our taxi business will automatically be affected. That is why we club together with Tshwane so our commuters can get a proper service,” he said.
Menlyn taxi association deputy chairperson, David Ramatsetse, expressed gratitude to the mall, promising that the associations will make sure they maintain the facility by keeping it clean.
Pretoria News
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