Paper presented at the 30th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 11-14 July 2011 "Africa on the Move", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.
The City of uMhlathuze is a Local Municipality that forms part of the uThungulu District
Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal with approximately 80% of the public transport trips within
the District has one end in this Local Municipality The Local Municipality comprises
Richards Bay with one of the busiest ports in the country; attracting a rising number of
freight trucks. The City of uMhlathuze encountered a situation where the Integrated
Transport Plan prepared at District level, did not have sufficient detail to inform its
development strategy and address transportation challenges, in particular concerning
public transport and road freight facilities. One of the challenges was that a number of the public transport facilities in the City of uMhlathuze form part of retail commercial
developments located on either leased land from the Municipality or prlvate land, this
placed limits on options for expansion of the facilities. Another challenge was the lack of
appropriate truck stop facilities, as a result, trucks would park at any open area in the
Empangeni and Richards Bay CBD including at rankslterminals. The Public Transport
Amenities Study was undertaken by the City of uMhlathuze to address these challenges
through investigation of the challenges at the rankslterminals, an assessment of the
condition and accessibility of public transport stops, establishing the demand for truck stop facilities and developing conceptual proposals for improvements. The process followed was akin to that of statutory transport plans, with the added level of conceptual proposals developed through substant~acl onsultation with private sector stakeholders.
