Off the rails?

A year ago, the Mail & Guardian reported how the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link was raising property ­values in areas near planned stations. Set to revolutionise how Gautengers travel, the single line transecting major suburbs could get commuters off the roads, and to their destinations much faster.

But digging tunnels and building stations creates dust. Now local businesses in Rosebank, where a major station is being built, are questioning just how much good the development will do them. They say they have lost between 40% and 60% of their customers because of construction noise and filth.

‘Personally no one told me about what was going to be happening, I did not know they were going to close the roads, and the dust is bad, really bad,” says Joseph Ndlovu who manages Nando’s on Oxford Road, less than 100m from the building site.

Thrishan Naicker and Ben Moodley own Jimmy’s Killer Prawns on Oxford Road, whose balcony faces the main construction site. They say their customers tripled when they first opened the balcony area. Naicker chews his cigar and paces restlessly as Moodley explains: ‘Our customers loved our balcony. They enjoyed the view. Now you can see — there is no view. We have lost 40% of our customers. With the dust, it looks so filthy people won’t eat here: look.” He points at unoccupied sofas coated with dust.

One key tool that could have helped — a national framework for managing air quality that the departmental of environmental affairs and tourism was due to produce on September 11 — is still not available.

Even so, there is a mechanism for dealing with such issues, says Gerrit Kornelius of environmental management services company Airshed. He explains that the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) develops environmental management plans for all such projects to help reduce the impact on the ­environment.

Bombela, the consortium building the Gautrain link, believes adequate controls are in place. Spokesperson Barbara Jensen says: ‘Environmental compliance is constantly monitored and reported on. Where non­compliances are found, these are immediately addressed and remedial actions put in place to correct them.”

Naicker is not satisfied. ‘Bombela came and did some tests on noise and dust. They said it was above the acceptable limit but they never gave the tests results back or told me what was to happen afterwards.”

Bobby Peek, of the environmental NGO groundWork, says it is important to understand not only how much dust might be in the air, but also what the dust might contain. Dust could hold particulate matter that poses health risks, particularly during the dry season.

‘The dangers coming from air pollution, particularly dust, can include greater frequency of respiratory illness such as asthma and increases in throat and lung infections,” agrees Kornelius.

As the dust rises another enterprise falls. The Rosebank taxi industry has been hard hit because roads have been closed or converted into one-ways, and some taxis have had to relocate from one rank to another, losing customers in the process.

‘Sometimes our customers spend up to 30 minutes looking for us and then phone other cabs. We only hear rumours of when we are going to be moved to another spot. No one consulted us. There is no communication with us on what is happening,” says driver Kaizer Mnisi.

Taxis also now spend more money on petrol trying to navigate the new routes and on parking fees for the mall area. Their previous loading zone is now a Gautrain site and drivers must pay R340 per month to park their cars inside Rosebank Mall to meet customers. Some drivers pay parking fees every time they enter the mall.

Says driver Dolph Moeketsi: ‘I used to make between R800 and R900 a day, but now I am only making about R120.”

Sipho Mavuso, a car guard, is finding it particularly hard to adapt. The parking lot where he and others worked was demolished. ‘We moved because Gautrain people told us to do so. They did not even find jobs for us. I used to make R120 a day but with my new job, I only get around R50.”

Jensen says she is confident there has been adequate consultation with the Rosebank community: ‘Bombela has held numerous public meetings, focus group meetings and one-on-one meetings with businesses, tenants associations, schools, residents associations, community members and councillors in the Rosebank area since the latter part of 2005.”

Jensen says businesses and community members with complaints can attend regular meetings of the community liaison forum set up in terms of the SABS’s environmental plan for the project. They can also register their concerns on the help­line (0800 GAUTRAIN) or visit the project website www.gautrain.co.za.

Not everyone finds that process user-friendly. ‘Even if I write letters to the Gautrain officials they are not helpful. They are always on leave or in a meeting or they refer us to other people,” says Moeketsi.

Adds Moodley: ‘It’s all good and well to say that once they’re done we will all be millionaires. But it is pointless if you have lost your business.”