The GO!Durban Empowerment Charter, part of Durban’s integrated rapid public transport network (IRPTN), was launched on October 21 by the eThekwini municipality.

GO!Durban’s objective is to implement a network of rail, road and nonmotorised transport systems that provide commuters with efficient and economical public transport options.

GO!Durban, one of the largest infrastructure projects in South Africa, unveiled its unique Empowerment Charter after a day’s workshop with various stakeholders.

The Empowerment Charter is a series of additional specifications added by the GO!Durban project to all contracts awarded on the project.

These additional clauses are targeted at addressing unemployment, poverty and inequality in the eThekwini municipality.

eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo called on citizens to “dare to care” not only about their individual needs, but the needs of those around them. “I ask you to lend a thought to the millions, that my station mandates that I serve, who are caught in between your needs and desires. I ask you to care for them, and see beyond your needs and requirements to their needs and requirements and invite them to participate in the economy that you have created around yourself, your business or organisation,” he says.

“Empowerment is the manner in which we give our citizens the tools to better themselves in a moral and accountable way,” says eThekwini deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala.

The GO!Durban Empowerment Charter has been created to specifically address both the complexity of a new public transport system and to ensure that fair opportunity is given through several different platforms, says Shabalala.

“It is a given that the IRPTN GO!Durban will transform the lives of eThekwini citizens through the development of nine transport ‘corridors’ across different types of transportation,” says Nxumalo.

An essential condition of the GO!Durban project has been to create a new Empowerment Charter specific to the multi- layered project, which has special clauses and strict criteria for all companies and service providers bidding for GO!Durban work.

GO!Durban has tighter regula- tions and deliverables in the tendering process and contract documents.