R80 billion down the drain for South Africa’s failed public transport system

The Department of Transport (DoT) announced that it is effectively pulling the plug on South Africa’s bus rapid transit (BRT) network.

Despite investments totalling over R80 billion across the past two decades, the DoT said the BRT had failed to attract the requisite commuter numbers.

Only around 152,000 passengers are reported to use the BRT nationwide daily, compared to approximately 8 million who use taxis and other road-based transport.

In an interview with 702, Rea Vaya’s Director of Service Promotions, Benny Makgoga, said between 15,000 and 20,000 people used Rea Vaya’s services daily.

This is despite the service operating over 200 buses and 63 stations across its various routes throughout the city of Johannesburg.

“At the moment, we have already spent R16.8 billion for all the infrastructure on the stations and depots we have created,” Makgoga said.

“The monthly operating cost is mainly the fee-per-kilometre that we pay for contracted services, which could be roughly about R30 million to R40 million.”

Makgoga said challenges across Rea Vaya’s phase 1A route, covering areas of Soweto such as Eldorado Park and Protea Glen, had significantly reduced the number of available buses.

He said a new contract was in development to restore coverage in these areas, and that it could increase daily commuter numbers on the service to around 60,000.

Makgoga also defended the BRT system against the more popular minibus taxi network, explaining that it was intended to integrate seamlessly into a larger public transport operation.

DoT spokesperson Collen Msibi told The Sunday Times that the grants for the country’s current BRT programme would be phased out in favour of a new road-based public transport fund.

According to Msibi, this new fund will aim to consolidate funding for existing bus and minibus transport systems under one umbrella and is currently being drafted for consultation.

BRT not worth the cost

The DoT’s admission of South Africa’s BRT failure has drawn serious criticism for a perceived lack of proper planning and spending oversight by the government.

According to The Sunday Times, transport expert and former University of Johannesburg lecturer Vaughan Mostert reportedly warned the DoT back when the BRT launched that it would not succeed.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) CEO, Wayne Duvenage, said South African taxpayers had not received value from the BRT equivalent to the investment put into it.

“When you think about how long this has taken and where we are today, these BRT stations are empty,” Duvenage said. “These routes have been long in the making and putting together.”

“Road infrastructure and improvements are not being done on time. Twenty years now this has been going on for, and we are not getting bang for our buck.”

Duvenage explained that the country had fallen far short of its initial ambitions for an integrated public transport system, with buses, trains and taxis still operating largely independent of each other.

The absence of one consolidated payment platform which could be used across the country’s various transport systems has only exacerbated this issue.

While Duvenage said the DoT had at least come to its senses regarding its wasteful expenditure on the BRT, he claimed not enough research had been conducted on its feasibility in the first place.

“We just see an absolute waste of taxpayers’ money because there’s not enough research going into this,” Duvenage claimed. “There’s not enough consultation with the various stakeholders.”

“They were warned that this was going to happen, but government seems to think that if it just puts things in place, they are all going to miraculously unfold.”

Duvenage said the DoT either needed to find a way to completely revitalise the BRT with the aid of the various stakeholders, or abandon the project completely and halt the pouring of money into it.