Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape is outraged that the province will use R1.1 billion to subsidise Golden Arrow Bus Services (Gabs) this year while doing little for the taxi industry.
The party is also upset that the province’s contract with Gabs cannot be shared publicly.
Provincial ANC finance spokesperson Nomi Nkondlo was reacting to a reply she received from Mobility MEC Daylin Mitchell about how much funding was provided to subsidise Gabs. She had also asked for details of the subsidy agreement and whether a copy of the agreement could be made available.
Mitchell said his department had allocated a conditional grant known as the Public Transport Operations Grant (PTOG) by the national Department of Transport to subsidise Gabs and that the PTOG allocation for the 2022/23 financial year was R1 127 813 000.
Last year the allocation was R1 132 644 000. Mitchell said the subsidy was payable to Gabs in terms of an interim contract between them.
He also said the contract, originally concluded between the national Department of Transport and Gabs in March 1997, required that the contents remain confidential and thus could not be shared.
In welcoming the allocation for the subsidisation of Gabs, Nkondlo said that the ANC was interested in the equitable resource allocation and investment to all modes of public transport. She said the veil of secrecy regarding the subsidy was a concern.
“Why is the contract confidential and hidden to us as members of the legislature yet these are public funds being used? What is being hidden from the public and how are we supposed to hold the involved parties accountable and measure the value for money?”
Nkondlo said Gabs seemed to be receiving preferential treatment while the taxi associations were treated like a stepchild, only getting crumbs from the table in the form of the Red Dot and Blue Dot services.
Asked what Gabs gave in return for the subsidy, Gabs spokesperson Bronwen Dyke-Beyer said the subsidy was essential to make it possible for many disadvantaged South Africans to counteract apartheid spatial planning and to access their places of work, hospitals and schools.
“Golden Arrow’s passengers are predominantly from areas such as Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha and they are not able to afford the full economic fare. Gabs also operates an additional unsubsidised 7 million kilometres because of the sheer scale of the need for public transport in Cape Town. This means that the additional costs must be absorbed by us.”
She said the biggest challenge bus operators faced was that the Public Transport Operations Grant allocation had not kept up with inflation and had, in real terms, decreased by about 6 percent for the current financial year.
In January, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said the government wanted to introduce subsidies for minibus taxi passengers. However, Santaco Western Cape Provincial Chairperson Mandla Hermanus said on Thursday that five months later nothing more had been heard of this project.
“All we heard of was a plan, but no steps have been taken. As for subsidies, we get nothing from the government.”
He, however, said he was encouraged by the Blue Dot incentive. which he said was working well and suggested that Minister Mbalula could borrow a leaf from this plan to assist the taxi industry nationally.
“It would present them with an opportunity to see how a functional system would work with regards to the issue of subsidies. However I am not sure if the national government has the appetite for this.”
He said the Blue Dot pilot was an incentive programme that rewarded improved driving behaviour and passenger service quality, while also beginning a process of professionalisation of the taxi industry.
“Drivers can earn up to R10 000 per month on this incentive programme if they drive well and stick to the rules.”