The Primary Challenges to Improving Public Transport in South Africa

Written by Siyaduma Biniza*

Integrating the minibus taxi industry is integral to public transport development in South Africa. However, co-ordinating with the taxi industry remains a challenge. Furthermore, the spatial legacy of Apartheid policies has made it difficult to ensure the economic viability of future public transport development and adversely affected transport demand. Therefore, this essay argues that co-ordination problems with the taxi industry, high transport costs associated with the spatial legacy of Apartheid and unsustainable public transport demand are primary challenges for public transport development in South Africa. Deregulation of the taxi industry by the Apartheid government in the late 1980s allowed the establishment of the taxi industry but also had the machinated consequence of outspread violence as operators fought for their share of the market (Sekhonyane and Dugard 2004). Nevertheless, minibus taxi services have grown substantially over the years causing drastic market share losses for bus services (Mathetha and Kenny 2008). Therefore, aside from the legitimate significance as the oldest source of black economic empowerment, the taxi industry has established itself as the primary mode of public transport (Coetzer 2010). Thus public transport development needs to take this industry into account and integrate it; especially since the industry operators have a legacy of responding to competition with violence (Sekhonyane and Dugard 2004). Deregulation has resulted in there being no centralised organisation to represent the entire minibus taxi industry and alliances are volatile and expedient-driven (Coetzer 2010). Consequently governments attempts to integrate the minibus taxi industry in

public transport developments, such as the National Taxi Task Team and the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme, have had very little success at best (Sekhonyane and Dugard 2004). Thus, public transport development is challenged by co-ordination problems when dealing with the minibus taxi industry. The SAICE Infrastructure Report for 2011 highlights the importance of a holistic systems approach and sustainability as critical factors for South Africas infrastructure development (Wall 2011). Therefore, achieving the best combination for the public transport is more important than decisions on which mode to invest in; making identifying the demand a priority over which mode to deliver (Mulley 2012). Thus, integration of existing networks and understanding the demand is very important for effective public transport development. But public transport in South Africa serves the need to move labour from peripheral residential areas into centralised workplaces resulting in limited off-peak services (CSIR 2000). Furthermore, the spatial legacy of Apartheid has resulted in the average distance travelled by public transport being more than twice the average distance in other developing countries (Coetzer 2010). Therefore, public transport costs are much higher for many of the poorest citizens; making many routes economically unviable (Coetzer 2010). Consequently, public transport demand has been adversely affected by this spatial legacy of Apartheid; making it more difficult to ensure the economic viability of any future public transport developments. Most of the commuters use public transport twice a day during two peak-times between 06:00-09:00 and 16:00-18:00 so public transport services and infrastructure remains underutilised for most of the operating

time which increases costs (Coetzer 2010). Therefore, the spatial legacy of Apartheid has made the operating costs unique highly and demand unsustainable. Thus, primary challenges for public transport development in South Africa are: coordinating public transport improvements with the taxi industry, high operating costs due to the spatial legacy of Apartheid and the unsustainable demand. The taxi industry cannot be neglected but co-ordinating with it remains a persistent challenge. And, in addition to uniquely high operating costs, the unsustainable demand makes it difficult to ensure economic viability of any public transport developments.

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* Siyaduma Biniza is a recent graduate holding a B.Soc.Sci in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Cape Town.