Taxi associations needed to "sort out their differences" and work with government to introduce a new high-tech bus system, Gauteng transport MEC Ignatius Jacobs said on Tuesday.

The first phase of the bus rapid transport system will be introduced in Gauteng in time for the Confederations Cup, he told reporters in Johannesburg.

Jacobs said taxi associations needed to sort out their differences over the new system.

"The BRT is going ahead. We will bring you on board once you've sorted out your differences."

Jacobs said taxi owners had been included in the BRT process for the past two years.

"The taxi industry elected its representatives to sit on the body and worked for two years on this system with the City of Johannesburg."

He said taxi owners were in no position to now say, "no, no, no, we withdraw, we want others (other representatives)".

"Now at the stage of implementation they are asking us to hold on," said Jacobs.

He said that while the government was still prepared to listen to their concerns, it was confident the system would be in place by the time the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup kicks off in Gauteng on 14 June.

"We are confident the system will be ready... particularly for the Confederations Cup," said Jacobs.

His spokesperson, Alfred Nhlapo, said the City of Johannesburg was planning to introduce the first phase of the BRT in time for the Confederations Cup.

The SA National Taxi Association (Santaco) has complained that the taxi industry had not been properly consulted about the BRT, a system many taxi owners believe would ultimately steal business from them.

Santaco general secretary Philip Taaibosch said last August: "The taxi industry moves the largest percentage of the commuting public and yet the industry was not involved in the BRT system. By this attitude the government is simply disempowering the taxi industry."

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe last December met industry operators and assured taxi owners there would be no job or profit losses resulting from the BRT.

Last month, about 1000 taxi owners staged a protest in Soweto to voice their opposition to the BRT.

The BRT is a new and faster bus system. In the first phase in Johannesburg, it will link Soweto and Nasrec to the Johannesburg central business district and Ellis Park, and will also link Sandton and Alexandra.

In Pretoria, it will link Mamelodi, Soshanguve and Mabopane to the CBD and Menlyn in the first phase.

The high-security buses will service townships and bus stations. The BRT system includes park-and-ride facilities, drop-off zones, metered-taxi ranks, bike parking and information kiosks.

It will operate through electronic ticketing designed to make passenger queues shorter.

The buses will run in exclusive dedicated lanes in the centre of existing roads from about 150 stations, positioned half-a-kilometre apart and will run every three minutes in peak times and every 10 minutes in off-peak times.

In mid-December last year, the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union called on taxi operators to support the BRT.

Sapa