Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called for urgent clarity from Transport Minister Barbara Creecy and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana over the future of funding for MyCiTi bus services.
The concern comes as national funding for public transport changes, with the Public Transport Network Grant set to be phased out.
According to the City, the uncertainty could affect existing MyCiTi services and the planned Cape Flats expansion, which is expected to bring more public transport access to communities that need it most.
A Major Service for Commuters
MyCiTi is one of South Africa’s strongest Bus Rapid Transit systems.
The service accounts for 42% of all passenger trips on BRT systems in the country.
Ridership has also grown by 68% since 2021, with MyCiTi now recording around 23 million passenger trips a year.
That number is expected to rise to 30 million once the Cape Flats route expansion is introduced.
The expansion is planned to benefit more than 1.4 million residents across 30 neighbourhoods, including Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Wynberg and Claremont.
Mayor Warns Against Blanket Cuts
Hill-Lewis said national funding reforms are understandable because many BRT systems in metros and large towns have failed.
But he warned that successful systems should not be punished in the same way.
“Some, like MyCiTi, have succeeded. The state should not throw out the baby with the bathwater by cutting funding to successful BRT services along with all the unsuccessful ones,” he said.
He said government should end support for ineffective programmes that waste public money, but protect services that work for commuters, especially in lower-income areas.
Hill-Lewis has asked for long-term funding certainty and wants the new Public Transport Fund to use a performance-based approach.
Cape Flats Expansion Now at Risk
Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility Rob Quintas said R7.1 billion has already been allocated to infrastructure for the new Cape Flats route.
He said the next step is turning that infrastructure into actual passenger services, including buying buses.
However, Quintas warned this is now at risk because of national cuts to the existing grant.
The City has called on national government to assess Cape Town’s public transport performance and make funding decisions that protect everyday commuters.
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