Polokwane - Limpopo's Department of Roads and Transport has set aside more that R25-million for taxi operators to ferry soccer fans to the different Public Viewing Areas during the FIFA World Cup.
Each of the province's five districts has one Public Viewing Area, which will give rural communities that cannot afford tickets the opportunity of watching all the matches during the month-long tournament.
"This money will be a huge boost to taxi operators and I hope they will smile all the way to the bank. The department will contract 1 250 taxis in total for the five selected viewing areas," said Roads and Transport MEC Pinkie Kekana.
She said taxi operators would have to have complied with the taxi recapitalisation programme and own vehicles less than three years old to qualify for accreditation.
The vehicles would also have to pass visual inspection tests and must be roadworthy.
In the Vhembe district, rural communities are expected to converge in larger numbers on the refurbished and upgraded Thohoyandou Stadium in the Thulamela local municipality.
The municipality's spokesperson, Ronald Makhadi, said a few last "touch-ups" were being done to the public viewing venue. "Come 11 June, we will be more than ready," he said.
Makhadi said because of the large numbers of people expected to visit the Thohoyandou Stadium, councillors would be asked to identify people who will watch the games.
"Because we expect large numbers of people to visit the stadium, we want groups to give each other a chance - those who attended today should allow another group do so the following day," he said.
Community member Azwinndini Masikhwa of Tshenzhelani village outside Mutale said it would be once-in-lifetime experience for him to be part of the people watching games in Thohoyandou's public viewing area because he had no electricity at home.
"We were worried because we've been excluded from watching many historic events before, but now we are happy that the provincial government has remembered us," said Masikhwa.
