One South African company moving over 210,000 people a day

Over its 81 years of existence, the Public Utility Transport Corporation (PUTCO) has grown to become the biggest commuter bus operator in South Africa.

The company manages a fleet of over 1,400 buses, with more than 210,000 people using its services every single day across the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga.

According to its website, PUTCO employs more than 2,500 people, with 1,600 of them being bus drivers, while its buses reportedly travel more than 82 million kilometres per year.

Canadian-born businessman Jack Bird Barregar founded the company in 1945, listing it on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) with an issued share capital of R810,000.

However, the company soon ran into financial difficulties and, by the end of the decade, had been placed under judicial management to prevent its liquidation.

This was successful, with the company being taken back out of judicial management just three years later and expanding its services as far as Durban.

The following decades would see PUTCO acquire a slew of other bus services. By the mid-1980s, the company’s fleet sat at 3,440 vehicles, and its yearly passengers peaked at 353 million.

However, the rise of South Africa’s minibus taxi industry during the following decade severely impacted the popularity of PUTCO’s services.

As commuters turned to the quicker and more affordable taxis, PUTCO saw its fleet reduced to 2,500 buses, while its passenger numbers quickly dropped to around 120 million a year.

The company also withdrew its operations from the province of KwaZulu-Natal, citing significant losses in the region as the reason for this.

In 2005, PUTCO delisted from the JSE after 60 years on the exchange, in order to allow for the taking on of broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) partners.

As a result, the company became the first in the South African transport sector to complete a B-BBEE scheme, selling 42.6% of its shares to its employees and other BEE groups in a R225 million deal.

PUTCO raises its prices

On the back of rising fuel prices as a result of the global oil crisis, PUTCO recently announced that it would increase its bus fares by as much as 10% from 1 June 2026.

This is separate from the annual fare increases that PUTCO implements in January each year, which do not account for unprecedented situations such as the war in the Middle East.

While it had been able to absorb these costs for the first two months following the price hike, the company said in a statement that this was no longer a sustainable option.

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, PUTCO spokesperson Lindokuhle Xulu said further diesel price increases could necessitate even further fare hikes down the line.

“One of the things that we understand at PUTCO is we operate a subsidised service,” Xulu said. “We are trying to operate for people who cannot afford other modes of transport.”

“To fully offset the fuel costs right now, we’d need 35%. We increased by just 10% to be able to accommodate our people. But we cannot predict what is going to happen.”

While many commuters may assume that a decrease in diesel prices would immediately lead to lower bus fares, Xulu stressed that this would not necessarily be the case.

This is due to the lag effect, meaning the costs which PUTCO absorbed during the first two months of the price hike will need to be recovered before the fares can come down.

However, Xulu said PUTCO would support any form of relief that would allow it to reduce the higher costs its customers face.

“They are really the ones that are now bearing the brunt of this,” Xulu said. “So we are hoping that there will be meaningful interventions.”

“Maybe a decrease, or some movement around government in terms of the subsidy itself. But certainly the situation is dire right now, and we are only hoping it will improve.”