Afternoon Drive withJoanne Joseph

Negotiations to get the MyCiti N2 Express services up and running again still continue.

The service was suspended on Friday following a contractual dispute between the joint venture company that operates on that route, which includes the City, Golden Arrow Bus Services and Codeta.

According to the City, Codeta is refusing to sign a new contract that will get the services rolling again.

A lawyer representing Codeta, Barnabas Xulu says mayoral committee member for transport Felicity Purchase is on record saying that the contract had irregularities and the City is working on addressing those irregularities.

Read: 'CoCt irresponsible to let commuters reload MyCiTi cards'

These irregularities were pointed out by Codeta and any contract which was presented for signing still contains those irregularities.

— Barnabas Xulu, Lawyer - B Xulu and Partners Incorporated

He says when the joint venture company was initiated, Golden Arrow Bus Services was supposed to bring minibus taxi operators up to speed about how the bus company runs its operations but claims it did not do so, and instead took over the route.

All the partners should be in control of the N2 Express route. But in this case, we are having one partner dominating all the operational matters and control of the route, which is Golden Arrow. N2 Express looks like a front...

— Barnabas Xulu, Lawyer - B Xulu and Partners Incorporated

We need to make sure that any other contractor service rendered to the City is rendered by a properly empowered and transformed company as it was the intention of the legislation.

— Barnabas Xulu, Lawyer - B Xulu and Partners Incorporated

The MyCiTi vehicle-operating company Kidrogen's CEO Andile Peter says the company is willing to assist commuters while the City and the joint venture company remain locked in negotiations.

Kindrogen is one of several companies contracted to help run the MyCiTi bus service from the Dunoon and Table View routes.

Peter says this assistance will exclude the Mitchells Plain route because it was only approached by the Khayelitsha associations.

Read also: The City dropped the ball on suspension of MyCiTi services - Brett Herron

The discussions I had were with Codeta representatives saying that they are concerned about the suspended services because commuters were struggling and asked if we were able to assist them.

— Andile Peter, CEO - MyCiti Kidrogen

We will put our team of managers and make sure we service the route according to the schedules with their own buses.

— Andile Peter, CEO - MyCiti Kidrogen

I never spoke to the City, I only confirmed our availability to Codeta representatives.

— Andile Peter, CEO - MyCiti Kidrogen

To hear the rest of the conversation, listen below:

This article first appeared on CapeTalk : 'MyCiTi N2 Express service looks like a front', says Codeta lawyer