Taxis would be relied on to transport fans between airports to match venues, accommodation nodes, transport hubs and Fan Fests, Ndebele said addressing the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) national conference at Sun City.
African Experience Tours and ESC Events have formed a consortium to manage long-distance bus services for general spectators between match cities.
Extra bus services are needed between host cities as existing services and schedules may not be adequate for the volume of visitors expected during the World Cup.
The tender was awarded just two weeks ago, although transport consultants had previously warned that the project was a complex one as the winning bidder would need to obtain vehicles, recruit and train drivers, and sell tickets.
Turning to road transport, the minister said his department would have in place an inter-provincial and regional transport system operated by the recently appointed Operating Managing Entity (OME).
"The OME will facilitate the efficient and safe transport of general spectators to and from matches."
A major component of the entity would be 110 newly acquired 79-seater inter-city buses, specially procured by the government for the World Cup.
A first-class national integrated transport system using the newly acquired Auto Pax coach fleet integrated with the taxi industry had been created.
The BRT roll-out will be done in phases, with line 1 linking areas in the north, such as Soshanguve and Mabopane, to the CBD, while line 2 will reach out to areas in the south and east, like the fast developing suburbs along Hans Strijdom Drive and Mamelodi.
The completion of lines 1 and 2 would mean a BRT service that covers a route of about 70km and features four bus terminals, 53 bus stations and 159 buses.
The plan envisages trains, buses, minibus taxis and metered taxis ferrying tourists to and from the airport, the Cape Town stadium and public viewing areas, and on an inner-city loop.
On match days, fans holding World Cup tickets will be able to travel to and from the stadium for free from more than 25 park-and-ride centres across the city, from as far afield as Strand.
Staff at the British High Commission in South Africa, along with Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials in London, FIFA and local police took part in the demonstration.
Spokesperson Ncedo Kumbaca said the only way for the owners to get them back was to fix the problems on the buses and put them through roadworthy tests.
"What the city is doing is just shifting responsibility from one operator to another. The SACP therefore calls for the immediate takeover of the public transport operation. This is indeed feasible as it has been proven throughout the world and in other South African cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town that the only effective way to run a public transport system is if it is run by the municipality involved," said Themba Mthembu, the provincial secretary of the SACP.
The SACP has also called for a full investigation into the collapse of the bus system under Remant Alton, saying that this had cost taxpayers about half a billion rands in bailout funds to the operator.
The Ethekwini Municipality privatised the municipal fleet in 2003 because the National Land Transport Transition Act stipulated that municipalities with transport authorities, such as eThekwini, should not themselves run buses.
Since 2003, Remant Alton had been accused of failing to provide efficient public transport and the city had bailed it out financially several times.
In 2008, eThekwini spent R405-million buying back buses and equipment from the underperforming operator.
With the shutdown, thousands of children will now face the dangerous prospect of travelling in taxis, being dropped off far from school and crossing dangerous intersections in peak traffic.
Many of them will be forced to walk long distances or miss classes.
On June 1, beleaguered bus service operator Remant Alton contacted the eThekwini Municipality to say the firm could not continue operating the service from the end of that month, citing financial difficulties and the non-payment of subsidies.
A bus driver strike in its second week will leave commuters stranded once again on Monday as parties continue to try and thrash out a wage agreement.
Metrobus spokesperson Kenney Kutu said the union accepted a proposal by the mediator last week but it still needed to be refined.
"Samwu [SA Municipal Workers' Union] leadership accepted the proposal, and we did not reject it. But we came up with another offer which we believe we can afford," said Kutu.
...This month's strike has been peaceful so far, but no Metrobuses are running because the company said it could not guarantee the safety of drivers standing in for the striking workers.
Braam de Jong, Putco's senior operations executive, said while government was of the view that the BRT system needed to be put in place to allow South Africa to break down outdated barriers, taxi operators would hold the country for ransom if was put in place.
"Protests, strikes, disruptions, violence, war and bloodshed... would bring the economy to its knees.
"Taxi operators have warned if BRT is implemented... It will cast a shadow over 2010 [the Fifa soccer world cup being hosted in SA 2008)."
...BRT in Gauteng was set to operate to Orange Farm, Sebokeng, the Johannesburg CBD, Soweto, Lenasia, the OR Tambo International Airport, the West Rand, Sandton, Sunninghill and Fourways.
Union officials described meetings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as a "waste of time" but Metro Bus spokesman Kenney Kutu was hopeful of a breakthrough on Monday.
SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) Gauteng branch secretary Dumisani Langa said if meetings on Monday did not yield any results, the union would call for a solidarity strike by all its members.
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In addition, Government is putting a guarantee of R 1.4-billion for the purpose of acquiring 570 buses.
A total of 110 general spectator buses, 168 semi-luxury coaches and 292 Intercity buses will be acquired for the World Cup.
Mr Radebe explained that an additional 260 buses will be leased from the industry, 250 for general spectator services and 10 semi-luxury coaches, bringing the total fleet to 830 for the 2010 bus and coach services to be provided by government.
He said a critical component of South Africa’s transport preparations for the World Cup was the provision of transport infrastructure, but most importantly the provision of the various modes of public transportation.
"Our human resources manager is going to the bargaining council first thing tomorrow morning [Wednesday] to hear if there are any developments. We are committed to speeding up the process," said Kutu.
He said the company decided to refer the matter to the bargaining council after its lawyers studied the reasons the Labour Court gave on its judgement on Friday, in favour of the drivers who demand a salary scale based on experience and seniority at the company.
Samwu, however, said its approximately 600 members were continuing with the strike on Wednesday, as the company had suspended negotiations.
"We are continuing with the action tomorrow [Wednesday]. We cannot have a system where a driver who is employed today gets the same salary as someone who has been with the company for 20 years," said Samwu shop steward Dion Makhura.
So confident is Samwu Joburg branch secretary Dumisani Langa of the Johannesburg Labour Court ruling in the union's favour on Friday, that he says commuters should start organising alternative transport now.
Metrobus applied for an interdict at the Johannesburg Labour Court against the union and its members after a dispute with Samwu was not resolved in Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration conciliation talks at the end of February.
The Department of Transport has revised down its target for new buses to be acquired, or leased, for the 2010 FIFA World Cup from the original 1 422 units, to around 1 000 buses.
"Our transport business plan estimates that we need approximately 1 000 buses, of which 570 would be operated by Autopax after the World Cup, subject to approval by the National Treasury," says Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.
Autopax operates the Translux and City-to-City services, and has moved from the Transnet stable to now fall under the newly-formed Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).
It also committed 420 semi-luxury and inter-city buses to MATCH. In addition, Pasa would provide another 110 to ferry spectators.
The remaining 1 000 buses did not form part of the signing ceremony and would be provided for separately.
Radebe said with only 437 days until the start of the World Cup, the memoranda of understanding were a show of the department's commitment to making the event a resounding success.
The BRT system will consist of bus trunk routes around Johannesburg and taxi drivers were worried that they would ultimately be pushed off the routes.
The first phase of the approximately 50km trunk route is expected to be in place by June 1 2009. It would run from Regina Mundi church in Soweto, past the Orlando and FNB stadiums and end at Ellis Park stadium.
About 500 taxis were expected to be scrapped or taken out of routes, with plans to make taxi drivers bus drivers, the taxi industry's BRT steering committee told the media on Monday.
The taxi industry is currently thrashing out a R2,5-billion contract with the city to become part of the first phase.
The transport department has invested R25 billion to upgrade train travel. Minister Jeff Radebe made the announcement when announcing a new transport enterprise, known as the Passenger Railway Agency of South Africa. The Agency will replace the old SA Rail Commuters Corporation. It will incorporate Metrorail, long distance rail division Shosholoza, Translux, as well as City to City.
At the launch, Radebe called on taxi and bus operators to participate in making the Bus Rapid Transit system a success. Taxi associations have threatened to disrupt the Confederations Cup and the 2010 Soccer World Cup if the system is implemented. Radebe says BRT will benefit all stakeholders.