Massive expansion planned for the Gautrain – which received R5.1 billion due to low passenger numbers

The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport paid the Bombela Concession Company over R5.1 billion to offset low passenger volumes, while Gautrain passenger trips fell from 13.9 million to 7.9 million.

Between the 2019/20 and 2022/23 financial years, the provincial Transport Department paid this amount under contractual patronage guarantees, which serve as built-in taxpayer insurance for poor performance.

This is according to the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) CEO, Bobby Ramagwede, who said that these funds could have filled gaps in the country’s state-owned transport operations.

The AA said that while Metrorail operations deteriorated due to vandalism and neglect on corridors serving working-class communities, public funds were diverted to protect private rail concessions. 

It is against this backdrop that the AA has condemned the South African government for pouring billions into elite infrastructure, particularly the Gautrain.

“Billions of rands that should fund mass transit and safe walking paths are used to prop up a premium rail service for a shrinking, wealthy minority,” said Ramagwede.

“We are subsidising luxury mobility for the few while the workforce walks through the dark to catch unsafe, unsubsidised transport.”

The CEO has also dismissed the Gautrain Management Agency’s plans to launch an app-based e-hailing service, the Gau Express, warning that the e-hailing venture “will fall flat on its face”.

“The Gautrain is bleeding passengers and seeking revenue diversification instead of fixing transit problems,” he said.

“It is not the state’s job to launch overpriced taxi apps in a cut-throat, low-margin market. How do you convince commuters who cannot afford train tickets to climb into an expensive state-run taxi?”

Ramagwede added that it is a contradiction to claim to want to reduce traffic congestion while adding more cars to the same roads.

South Africans cannot afford to get to work

According to the AA, South Africa’s broken public transport network has forced working-class households to spend 45% of their monthly income to get to work.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported that local households spend an average of 16% of total expenditure on mobility, which far exceeds the government’s 10% policy ceiling.

On top of this, affordability tracking by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group (PMBEJD) found that transport and electricity alone consume up to 64.6% of the national minimum wage.

The Competition Commission confirmed that average workers spend over 57% of their earnings on transport and electricity alone.

As a result, a worker earning the minimum wage of R5,078 will spend an average of R1,520 on transport every month, leaving less than R1,800 to feed their families.

“When a security guard or retail worker must surrender nearly half their wages just to sit in a minibus taxi, our transport network is no longer connecting people to opportunity. It is penalising them for having a job,” said Ramagwede.

The AA explained that because low-income workers live on urban peripheries far from business districts, most of them face an unavoidable double-fare penalty.

That is because these commuters often have to take two minibus taxis each way, meaning a commuter who pays R18 per trip spends R72 daily, or roughly R1,580 monthly, in cash fares.

Despite the minibus taxi industry carrying over 80% of South Africa’s public transport users, it receives no direct operational subsidies from the state.

This leaves commuters bearing every rise in fuel prices directly, with no financial buffer to protect them when transport costs go up.

Ramagwede said the human cost is felt at the dinner table, since workers are no longer choosing between public transport and luxury goods; they are choosing between taxi fares and buying food.