THEMBA MATHIBE | Why the expansion of Rea Vaya and inclusive transportation matter

The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) has reached practical completion of the Rivonia Road demarcation — a critical component of theRea Vayaexpansion connecting Alexandra, Sandton and the inner city. In Gauteng, townships are located 25km-30km away from central economic zones. This feature of apartheid spatial planning continues to sustain the physical divide between peripheral residential areas and urban cores, while also worsening the cost-of-living crisis that expresses itself in the high cost of transportation for low-income households.

While the average South African household across all income groups allocates about 15.3%-16% of their total budget to transportation, lower-income individuals and commuters face a disproportionate financial burden. Data from Stats SA shows that more than two-thirds of the lowest-income households spend more than 20% of their total monthly income strictly on public transport, while a 2025 report by the World Bank puts the number at about 50%. Both figures are significantly higher than the National Transport Subsidy Policy target, which aims to limit individual transport expenditure to a maximum of 10% of disposable income.

The implications of this are wide-ranging at both household and national levels. High transport spending drastically cuts into allocations for other survival needs. Lower-income households regularly must trade off transport money against baseline expenditure for nutritional food and formal housing.

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Furthermore, high transport costs worsen unemployment by increasing worker discouragement and limiting job searches to local areas. Thus, expanding Rea Vaya to townships such as Alexandra is essential to undoingapartheid spatial planning, reducing high travel costs, and linking marginalised workers to urban economic hubs where employment opportunities are greatly concentrated. In addition to the expansion of Rea Vaya, the JDA has also completed the Universal Design Access Plan (UDAP) — a strategic framework that guides the creation of inclusive, equitable, and accessible public environments, services, and transit systems so they can be used by everyone without needing special changes.

This will ensure that the bus rapid transit system is accessible to persons with disabilities, older persons and other vulnerable users. This inclusive transportation will ensure equitable access, economic opportunity, and community well-being by making mobility systems usable for everyone. This matters for a country where about 3.3-million people, or 7.5% of the population, live with disabilities, with over half of all individuals aged 85 and older most affected.

Disability also has economic implications, with the labour force participation rate for people with disabilities remaining consistently low. People with disabilities make up about 1.0%-1.3% of the formal workforce, falling well below national equity targets.

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