Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana recently said that the public transport grant had not achieved its purpose and would be reworked.
Public bus services have received billions in grants of the last 15 years but the tap may soon be turned off.
Bus rapid transport (BRT) systems exist in 13 municipalities and are funded primarily by the public transport network grant (PTNG).
The National Treasury had previously identified the public transport grant as the second-worst performing grant and Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana last month said the grants had failed to achieve their objectives.
42.7 million tips in one year
Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy recently signed off a response to a question asking for clarity on how much municipalities had been given for BRT projects
Excluding the build up to the 2010 Fifa World Cup, Creecy said R84.1 billion had been given to municipalities in the form of PTNGs since the 2010/11 financial year – roughly R5.6 billion a year.
Cape Town received R20.5 billion, while Johannesburg received R14.9 billion in the last 15 years.
Tshwane and eThekwini were close behind with R10.7 billion and R10.2 billion, respectively.
Eight other municipalities received between R6 billion and R1 billion, with Buffalo City receiving the least with R769 million.
The written parliamentary question asked about the fleet size, asset value and the operational availability of the fleet, but the department directed those questions to the individual municipalities.
Creecy’s response did say that 42.7 million passenger trips had been recorded in the 2024/25 financial year.
Transport grant to be evaluation
The National Treasury previously said that as little as 25% of the PTNGs were being properly utilised in some municipalities.
“It is an observation that metropolitan municipalities are increasingly struggling to implement this programme,” the Treasury said.
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During his Medium-Term Budget Speech, Godongwana outlined the targeted and responsible savings initiative aimed eliminating duplication and waste in public spending.
“We are implementing medium-term savings of R6.7 billion by closing or scaling down low-priority and underperforming programmes immediately.
“We are also scaling down the PTNG. The grant has failed to meet the objective and some cities have failed entirely to get the projects off the ground.”
The minister said public transport was still a government priority but that the cost of mobility would be reworked.
Shareholders are taxi operators
While BRTs had been publicly funded, the shareholders are made up predominantly of minibus taxi operators.
The Johannesburg municipality in 2015 announced that roughly 150 minibus taxi owners became shareholders of the multimillion-rand Rea Vaya BRT system.
The first year of the 12-year deal set to expire in 2027 was worth R160 million.
Taxi operators have a 75% stake in the Rea Vaya project, while bus company Putco holds the other 25%.
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