Johannesburg’s public bus system ran for the first time on a week day as the government seeks to remedy a lack of planning during apartheid that trapped millions of black South Africans in townships miles from their jobs without reliable transport.
The so-called Rea Vaya bus route, which links Soweto to central Johannesburg, is a pilot project for a service that will be rolled out throughout the city and in other urban centers including Cape Town, Pretoria, and Port Elizabeth. It will also help ferry fans to stadiums such as Johannesburg’s Ellis Park for next year’s soccer World Cup.
“It’s a huge step in the right direction,” said Jackie Walters, Head of the Department of Transport and Logistics at the University of Johannesburg. “Public transport integrates areas. The more organized it is, the more people will use it.”
While blacks were needed to provide labor in South African cities during apartheid, the government reserved central residential areas for whites and set up townships on the outskirts of cities, with little consideration to transport or commuting times.
Today, 15 years after the end of whites-only rule, most urban blacks still rely on privately owned minibus “taxis”.
“Commuters now have an alternative,” Conel Mackay, spokesman for Rea Vaya, which means ‘we are going’ in the Sotho language, said in an interview. “We have seen the number of commuters swell this morning as they try to get to work.
Owners and drivers of South Africa’s about 100,000 minibus taxis have threatened to call a strike because they say the new system will cost them their livelihoods.
Commuters reported that some taxis in Johannesburg aren’t operating today, Mackay said. Police are stationed in the inner city to ensure the bus system operates smoothly. Rea Vaya began operating yesterday, with free rides offered to familiarize people with the service.
The cost of a bus trip from Soweto to Johannesburg is ZAR5 (USD0.64) while a taxi trip on a similar route costs as much as ZAR10.
The government is spending ZAR2 billion (USD257 million) on the bus system in Johannesburg alone and has plans to give existing taxi owners stakes in the company that will operate the buses and will take on taxi drivers as employees. That isn’t enough for the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO), the main industry body, which wants the right to operate everything from station-cleaning services to building roads. The taxi group last week lost a court bid to halt the bus system.
Philip Taaibosch, Secretary-General of the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO), said members of the group are meeting today to decide on what action to take, without elaborating further.
“Taxi men built their industry on their own without government help, you just cannot come and use our routes,” Taaibosch said in May. “We don’t want to own buses only. We want to own the entire business that accompanies” the public bus system.
Club-wielding taxi drivers blocked major city routes and assaulted car drivers in a demonstration earlier this year.
Taxi drivers armed with knobkieries, traditional fighting sticks, at a rank in Sandton in northern Johannesburg refused to answer questions today.
Rea Vaya was due to start up at the beginning of June, ahead of the Confederations Cup, an international soccer tournament that is seen as a dry run for the World Cup. It was delayed after threats of a strike and demonstrations by taxi drivers.
South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO)
Source(s): Bloomberg News
