Dial-a-Ride court case exposes a bigger crisis in public transport

The City of Cape Town (COCT) hopes the Dial-a-Ride court case will prompt the national government to act on promises to make public transport accessible for people with disabilities

The COCT has recently been heavily criticised for reducing its Dial-a-Ride public transport transport service for people with mobility disabilities.

However, this is only a symptom of a bigger issue: the Western Cape has been shouldering the responsibility of making transport more accessible, without any help from the national government.

This was echoed by COCT Councillor Rob Quintas, who told Newsday that the city has received no financial support from the National Government for Dial-a-Ride or any of its accessible transport facilities. 

Quintas is in the COCT’s Mayoral Committee for Urban Mobility. 

In a letter to the public in December 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that people with disabilities in South Africa are excluded from public transportation. 

“Minibus taxis, for example, have limited capacity for accommodating wheelchairs and other mobility aids,” he said. 

“As a result of these serious challenges, many in the disabled community find themselves poor, unemployed, and excluded. They suffer ill-health and poor quality of life.”

At the Transport Summit on Universal Accessibility and Accessible Transport for All in April 2024, the Department of Transport committed to offering universally accessible transport.

The department acknowledged that there are barriers preventing people with disabilities from exercising their constitutional right to freedom of movement in South Africa.

Accessibility in public transport, therefore, became a part of the department’s strategic framework for 2024 to 2030.

Despite national-level commitment and legislation, actual funding and projects to improve public transport systems have not materialised. 

While rural areas with less public transport experience the most severe lack of accommodations for people with disabilities, urban centres like Johannesburg and Cape Town do not fare much better.

Under this pressure, civil rights groups were particularly critical of the City of Cape Town’s recent announcement to reduce its Dial-a-Ride service. 

No funding from national government

The Western Cape Network on Disability has taken the matter to the Western Cape High Court, which will deliver a judgment in October. 

Quintas acknowledged that accommodating people with disabilities is a mandate for all South African municipalities, governed by the Constitution and frequently mentioned in annual reports from the Department of Transport..

“Accessibility to public transport facilities for persons with disabilities is a goal that all spheres of government – from National, to Provincial and Local – must seek to achieve,” said Quintas.

“The means by which that accessibility is to be progressively realised, and the funding for these interventions and improvements, are not stipulated in annual reports,” he said.

The Dial-a-Ride service was introduced in 2002 as a specialised door-to-door service for people with mobility impairments, prior to the introduction of the MyCiTi bus services.

“The service expanded over the years to a level that was not envisaged at the time of introduction,” Quintas said. 

The city received no funding from the national government to provide the service, and has funded it directly through municipal rates since 2002. 

“Unfortunately, the current financial and operating model is unsustainable as the service operates at a budget deficit of nearly R1 million a month.”

The City has requested funding from other organs of state and has been unsuccessful to date, and so Quintas said it welcomes the court case, which will bring light to the funding deficit. 

“The city invests more in transport for persons with disabilities than any other metro in South Africa, and is proud to do so,” he said. 

The Dial-a-Ride service is oversubscribed and has not taken any new applicants since 2018. Cape Town has now committed to upgrading its public transport network for people with disabilities.

“These investments will serve far more residents than Dial-a-Ride alone ever could,” said Quintas. 

Dial-a-Ride is the only government subsidised transport service for people with disabilities in South Africa, according to Disability Info South Africa.

Director of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD), Therina Wentzel, told Newsday that people with disabilities are excluded from pubic transport on a national level.

No rollout strategies for accessible transport

South Africa’s road transport strategy does not include comprehensive plans for persons with disabilities. “There is a mention, but there is no rollout strategy at all,” she said.

Wentzel added that the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme, an ongoing Department of Transport initiative that replaces ageing, unsafe minibus taxis, does not include any provisions for accessible transport.

“We feel that when there is taxi recapitalisation, we should be included in that: our vehicles that we have to buy should be subsidised in the same way. This is directly against our constitution,” she said.

She added that subsidies for transport systems that benefit people without disabilities should be extended to associations that support people with disabilities, filling a service gap left by the government.

In terms of train systems, Wentzel said that there is an effort to improve access to train systems in the Western Cape, but accessibility to multiple train stations remains limited because this was not a consideration from the outset.

The Council was involved in development of the Gautrain system in Gauteng, however, Wentzel said that the toilets at some Gautrain stations are not accessible.

“An effort has been made, but an effort is not good enough because it takes people’s independence away,” she said.

In aviation, Wentzel said Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) used to have a forum for people with disabilities, attended by civil aviation authorities, baggage handlers and airlines.

“Unfortunately, that forum fell flat,” Wentzel said. “We hear they are busy reviving it.” Wentzel said this forum made South Africa a leader in accessible air travel.

“At the moment, there is none of that. Staff are untrained, we get complaints every single day, and they are not dealt with. It is very difficult for people with disabilities to travel by air now.