Johannesburg - More than 30 new buses that should be serving the Ekurhuleni communities are gathering dust as the municipality has failed since late 2019 to get them on to the road.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has revealed in a written reply in Parliament that Ekurhuleni could not meet the deadline of October 2019 to have at least 32 buses licensed to operate.
The buses were procured for the Harambee bus rapid transit system introduced in 2016.
Mbalula’s previous reply to Harambee-related questions indicated that the system operated with just 18 buses by November 2019.
Of these, eight were owned by the metro and 10 were leased.
Mbalula indicated in the previous reply that adding the 32 to the eight city-owned buses would result in Harambee having a fleet of 40 by the end of October 2019.
Mbalula’s latest reply on the Harambee buses implied that the 32 buses were procured, but Ekurhuleni had failed to have them licensed.
He replied last week to DA MP Mergan Chetty, who had asked for the reasons why Ekurhuleni “failed to meet the deadline of October 2019 in order to have 40 buses operating”.
Mbalula replied that Ekurhuleni reported to him that it faced challenges in having the buses licensed.
The coronavirus outbreak also compounded matters for the metro, he said.
“The City of Ekurhuleni reported that there were unforeseen delays with the issuing of new operating licences for buses at the Provincial Regulatory Entity (PRE),” said Mbalula.
“Without the operating licences the additional buses could not be introduced into the system.
“This delay was further exacerbated by the closing of PRE offices during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Only applications for operating licence renewals were processed during the lockdown period.
“The City had to intervene and request for a special dispensation for the processing of the BRT operator’s application for operating licences.”
He revealed that Ekurhuleni also faced a budget issue, after the National Treasury declined to roll over R100 million that was unused in the 2018/19 financial year.
He said the rollover application was not approved “even though the City appealed in January 2020”.
“The Department of Transport supported Ekurhuleni’s appeal regarding its 18/19 rollover,” said Mbalula.
“However, with this appeal being unsuccessful and with the challenge of Covid-19… the department has accepted a delay and instructed Ekurhuleni to fully ramp up the 40 bus service in the first half of 2021.”
Mbalula stressed that Ekurhuleni would have to find means to ensure the buses got on to the road, or face sanctions.
“Failure to comply with this will see Ekurhuleni as a potential candidate for being suspended from the Public Transport Network Grant in the 2022 MTEF period,” said Mbalula.
The Star