Buses at the Rea Vaya bus depot in Dobsonville. Picture: Nigel Sibanda Public bus services have received billions in grants of the last 15 years but the tap may soon be turned off. Bus rapid transport (BRT) systems exist in 13 municipalities and are funded primarily by the public transport network grant (PTNG).
The National Treasury had previously identified the public transport grant as the second-worst performing grant and Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana last month said the grants had failed to achieve their objectives. Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy recently signed off a response to a question asking for clarity on how much municipalities had been given for BRT projects Excluding the build up to the 2010 Fifa World Cup, Creecy said R84.1 billion had been given to municipalities in the form of PTNGs since the 2010/11 financial year – roughly R5.6 billion a year. Cape Town received R20.5 billion, while Johannesburg received R14.9 billion in the last 15 years.
Tshwane and eThekwini were close behind with R10.7 billion and R10.2 billion, respectively. Eight other municipalities received between R6 billion and R1 billion, with Buffalo City receiving the least with R769 million. The written parliamentary question asked about the fleet size, asset value and the operational availability of the fleet, but the department directed those questions to the individual municipalities.
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Creecy’s response did say that 42.7 million passenger trips had been recorded in the 2024/25 financial year. TheNational Treasurypreviously said that as little as 25% of the PTNGs were being properly utilised in some municipalities.
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