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01 February 2011

Rea Vaya has reached another milestone. On Tuesday, 1 February the Taxi Operators Investment Companies formally took control of the BRT's Bus Operating Company.

SINCE the beginning of 2007, the Taxi Industry has been extensively engaged in the planning and implementation of the Rea Vaya project by the City of Joburg for three years.

This was followed by more that a year of commercial and business negotiations between the City and taxi operators from nine Taxi Associations in Soweto and several months of the preparations for the takeover of the Rea Vaya bus operations. We are proud to announce that from today the nine Taxi Operators Investment Companies owned by over 300 taxi operators are in charge of the Rea Vaya Bus Operating Company and commencing the 12-year Bus Operating Contract.

The new name of the company will be PioTrans (Pty) Ltd, echoing the pioneering steps of the taxi operators who have decided to transform and grow into the fully-fledged public transport operator as part of the public transport transformation process in the City and South Africa.

The new Board of Directors and Top Management of the Bus Operating Company have been appointed.

The Board would like to thank the former CEO of Clidet, Ms. J Huntley, as well as Mr. Andre van Niekerk, as the former General Manager for their interim management roles in the first Rea Vaya Bus Operating Company and express a great appreciation for their efforts in making sure that the initial BRT service has been provided to a great satisfaction of commuters.

The Board of Directors, chaired by Mr. Sicelo Mabaso, includes thirteen taxi operators as non-executive directors representing their Taxi Investment companies, and three Executive Directors appointed into the Top Management positions in the company. The Executive appointments include Mr. Victor Cordoba, as new CEO of Clidet (future PioTrans) from Fanalca South Africa, management and business partner of Taxi Companies, Mr. Dumisani Mntambo, as the Deputy CEO and Mr. Eric Motshwane as Director for Corporate Affairs.

The new CEO of the company comes from Fanalca South Africa, a local subsidiary of one of the largest and most successful BRT bus operating companies in South America.   After extensive deliberations, the taxi industry felt that to succeed in operating the first BRT bus company in South Africa, that a partnership with an experienced international company in the BRT operations would be essential.

Fanalca was founded in 1958. Its headquarters are in the city of Cali in Colombia. It is one of the more important industrial groups in Colombia with activities in, amongst others, the Industrial, Automotive, Waste Collection, Water Treatment and Distribution, Motorcycles and Public Transport sectors. With regard to the BRT and other Public Transport operations, Fanalca operates successfully in systems like Trnasmilenio (Bogotá), Transantiago (Chile), Metrobus (Panamá), MIO (Cali), MetroSinú (Montería), SITP (Bogotá) managing the operations of more than 5.000 buses.

The Board of Clidet and Taxi companies are confident that the expertise and experience of Fanalca would provide great opportunities for local skills development in the public transport management and operations and we are collectively committed to achieve major progress in this regard.

For the very long time, we, as the taxi operators, have had challenges to partner with the Government in various business and transformation initiatives. For the last four years whilst engaging the City and other spheres of Government in the BRT transformation initiative, we have managed and learned to resolve the most challenging situations through dialogue and perseverance.

For that, we are most grateful to the City of Joburg leadership, Honorable Mayor Cllr. A Masondo, all members of the Mayoral Committee and more specifically the MMC for Transport Mrs. R Moosajee and Executive Director for Transport, Ms. L Seftel. They have played a crucial role in achieving this major milestone in the public transport transformation agenda. There are many other people who assisted us in this process and we thank them all.

Lastly, we are highly committed to provide the world-class service to our commuters and assist in their transport needs and requirements.  

Thank you.

For further questions and information:

Contact Mr E Motswane on 082 956 3429