City of Ekurhuleni executive mayor Mondli Gungubele earlier this month officially named the city’s bus rapid transit (BRT) system Harambee.

The Harambee – meaning ‘working together in unity’ in Swahili – BRT system, which will be launched next year, aims to connect the nine towns that make up Ekurhuleni, namely Benoni, Germiston, Springs, Kempton Park, Edenvale, Nigel, Brakpan, Boksburg and Alberton, in a bid to overcome the problems created by apartheid spatial planning.

“Continuously working with various stake- holders in the public transport sector, we have done extensive work to build the infrastructure, and the order for the buses has already been placed,” Gungubele said.

With construction for the Harambee BRT system having started in April last year on the complementary route between Tembisa Hospital and the Tembisa Civic Centre, the system will be one of the key drivers for the regeneration of inner cities and the renewal of townships in Ekurhuleni.

The first phase, entailing 56 km, will run from Tembisa, in the north, through Kempton Park, OR Tambo International Airport and Boksburg and will end in Vosloorus, in the south. This phase will be launched operationally in the first quarter of 2016 and the operationalisation of the entire project is projected for October 2017.

“The Harambee system will be a safe, reliable and affordable public transport system that includes specialised design, services and infrastructure that will improve and enrich the lives of Ekurhuleni’s 3.1-million citizens,” Gungubele said.

Harambee will be operated by a traffic management centre in Kempton Park, which will control all Ekurhuleni’s transport services through CCTV cameras, vehicle tracking and navigation systems in the buses and at the stations.

The new routes that will accommodate the Harambee buses will entail 18 km of main busway, with 12 stations and 90 stops along the feeder and complementary routes. Commuters will make use of smartcards to access the buses, eliminating the need to carry cash.

“With regular travel times during peak hours, passengers are able to plan their lives better and get to work or school on time,” he said.

Moreover, accessibility to a variety of areas will be made possible by means of complementary and feeder routes, pedestrian walkways and cycle paths. These nonmotorised transport (NMT) systems form part of the integrated transport network. To date, construction of facilities to foster NMT is ongoing in Tembisa, Kempton Park and Boksburg.