Donwald Pressly
Integrated public transport systems in the cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town are under fire for failing to provide adequate services for the poor while costs climb for the road and rail systems.
Moeletsi Mbeki, a political and economic analyst, was joined by SA Transport and Allied Workers Union national spokesman Mamokgethi Molopyane in slamming the rollout of the Gautrain – which both described as an elite project to ferry the wealthy from OR Tambo International Airport to Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Molopyane also slammed the government for imposing the e-tolling system on the Gauteng freeway network, which took “no account of the negative effect it will have on economic growth and job creation in the province”.
Molopyane described the e-tolling system as “an elite money making scheme which further adds to the woes of the already agitated working class of Gauteng”.
Mbeki, a brother of former president Thabo Mbeki, said the Gautrain was built even though there was an existing rail line between Pretoria and Johannesburg. It was misdirected spending, he argued.
Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin acknowledged some of the teething problems in the transport system but he said many might be resolved if local government had greater powers over the Metrorail networks. The suburban train network fall under the national government, which has oversight over the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa).
The SACP, of which Cronin is deputy general secretary, said while it respected the cabinet’s decision to go ahead with a tolling system “we are still not convinced that there was a need to toll these roads”.
Acting SACP provincial secretary Jacob Mamabolo said his party would put before alliance leaders the need “to radically change and review the developmental trajectory” followed in Gauteng “which in class terms (has) benefited the elite and tenderpreneurs”.
“We firmly believe that the government must develop clear principles and broad criteria that should underpin any high value developmental and infrastructure projects,” he said.
Mamabolo nevertheless welcomed the exemption of modes of public transport used predominantly by the working class and the poor – in particular taxis and buses – from the tolling system. Molopyane said the toll fees would still have a negative impact on basic products “such as bread and milk”.
“We call on the working class and poor to unite and stand side by side in fighting this e-tolling monster. Through our marches, demonstrations and pickets we will bring this behemoth to its knees.”
Mamabolo said the SACP “firmly believes that public transport interventions in this province, such as the Gautrain, do not come any closer to meeting the transport needs of the working and the poor”.
Significantly yesterday, the Sandton City shopping complex welcomed the Gautrain link to Pretoria, which put shoppers in the administrative capital within easy reach by train of the shopper paradise.
Cronin argues that one of the ways to devolve power, and raise the influence of local government, which was closer to communities where the integrated transport was being rolled out, was to devolve the operational subsidy of Metrorail. “The cities would regulate (Metrorail) and enter into service agreements,” Cronin said.
While the operational entity would remain Prasa, there would be effective oversight over city rail services through “city-level” public funding.
This would draw together local government responsibility for all key elements of integrated public transport.
Ultimately the aim was to have a ticket system where commuters could use one ticket for all transport modes in a city.
Much of the concern during the recent municipal election campaign arose from the fact that Metrorail fell outside of the ambit of local government. Both Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and the city’s ANC leader, Tony Ehrenreich, who is also Western Cape general secretary of Cosatu, spoke about the need to integrate the transport systems. They both argued in favour of aligning rail with other transport modes.
Ehrenreich also argued that the first rollout of the new bus service from Cape Town’s city centre through to the north-western suburb of Table View and ultimately to Atlantis favoured traditionally white suburbs. He believed the focus should have been on the black townships such as Gugulethu and Khayelitsha to the east.
It has also been rolled out to Hout Bay to the south.
Despite grumblings about being an elite service at present, the MyCiti bus system will carry an estimated 110 000 passenger trips a day by next year. It has cost about R1 billion to roll out so far, funded by the public transport infrastructure and systems grant.
Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele reported that the Rea Vaya bus system in Johannesburg had cost R1.6bn. It was expected to serve 400 000 passenger trips a day by next year.
Ndebele said the system had created jobs, reduced travel times for the poor and “reduced the cost of transportation, which forms a huge part of the expenditure for the majority”.
Cronin noted that the Pretoria bus rapid transport system was still in the planning phase. About R70 million had been committed to the project.
A recent recruit to the integrated rapid transport idea – at least in the planning stage – was the North West mining town of Rustenburg. Recently mayor Mpho Khunou reported that the Rustenburg rapid transport system would be phased in over three years.
Cronin said it would have a “V shape” with two lines meeting in the city centre. “The two tips reach into the major townships, which makes the whole system more sustainable.”
It had been designed to cope with the surge of human traffic when the lunchtime shift from the surrounding platinum mines finished work. It was envisaged that 200 000 passengers would be ferried each day by 2015 – about 40 percent of the city’s population.
In Johannesburg, Cronin reported that the bus rapid transport system ran from Soweto to the central business district “with some movement in and around the city”.
Other towns planning integrated transport systems are Nelson Mandela Bay, which includes Port Elizabeth, Despatch and Uitenhage; eThekwini, including Durban and KwaMashu; and Buffalo City, which includes East London and Mdantsane.