Cape Town protects its citizens from diesel price hikes

The City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility Directorate has confirmed that, despite diesel prices rising by up to R2.84 per litre in September, the tariffs of its MyCiTi public transport service will not increase.

The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, Rob Quintas, said the MyCiTi rates will only go up should the diesel price breach the R27.51/litre threshold for two consecutive months, or for two out of three months.

The current wholesale diesel price in Cape Town is R22.58/litre, meaning there is still a buffer of R4.93 before ticket prices are hiked in line with the council-approved budget.

“The council-approved budget for the current financial year allows the City to adjust MyCiTi tariffs in order to mitigate the risk of significant fuel price fluctuations in the future, and to be more cost-reflective of the diesel price which has a huge impact on the cost to operate the MyCiTi bus service,” said Quintas.

“The City is committed to providing an affordable and reliable MyCiTi service. However, we also have a responsibility to ensure the financial sustainability of the service.”

Sudden interruptions

Diesel prices are one of the biggest operational costs in the MyCiTi service, and in the past, significant increases in a short time have led to important routes suddenly being suspended as they were not economically viable enough to continue running.

In December 2022, for example, MyCiTi had to temporarily halt its airport route after the country experienced a 50.5% rise in diesel prices between January and November. At the same time, it was also forced to increase fares on the remaining routes to ensure that it remains profitable.

“The annual council-approved tariffs require that fares must be increased or decreased during a financial year where there are significant and sustained fuel price changes,” it said at the time.

“This protects passengers from paying too much when the fuel price decreases substantially during the course of a financial year. It also protects the City from ongoing losses when the fuel price increases considerably.”