Minister of Transport, Minister Radebe, has stated that mass transit, rather than the suburban bus system, is what South Africa needs as it moves into a time of steady growth and rapid development. The South African Government must invest more energy in integrating BRT more effectively with other public transport systems, including municipal buses, taxis in the form of microbuses, and ride-hailing services such as Uber. The vision for the Department of Transport is of a public transportation system which provides a minimum level of service within an urban and rural setting, thus enabling greater mobility for South Africans.
The Department of Transport is responsible for regulating all transport in South Africa, including mass transit, railway transportation, civil aviation, maritime, trucking, and motor vehicles. While the Department of Transport is responsible for general policy, the construction and maintenance of roads is a matter of responsibility of the South African National Roads Agency, and the nine provinces and the local governments.
South Africa’s national department of transport is working with all the relevant stakeholders in order to achieve the country’s rail renaissance, positioning railways as a pillar of the transportation system, both passenger and freight. Preparations cover significant upgrades at South Africa’s airports, as well as improvements in the overall transportation system, including the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme, the consolidation of passenger rail entities, and a bus sector transformation. The Government has begun work on projects that will enhance the safety of railways and revive rail as a viable public transport option.
This first phase has been designed to allow for the easier integration of other forms of public transport–from cycling, through to the well-known minibuses of South Africa, as part of the IRTs subsequent phases –including railway transport, which is now seen as the backbone of public transport in Cape Town. As a result, Cape Town has planned the development of a combined rapid transit (IRT) system called MyCiTi IRT. A combined rapid transit (IRT) system called MyCiTi IRT. The project includes rehabilitating the railway services, as well as the creation of a new bus rapid transit (BRT) system.
This was partially driven by political pressure from the taxi organizations, partly to assist in the integration of an upgraded taxi sector with the formal transportation network. The loosening of regulations on private transportation services produced South Africa’s first large Black-run sector, but lack of regulation also fostered confused services and timetables, lack of safety standards or accountability, unregulated fares, and hundreds of rickshaws operating on main corridors served most efficiently by buses and trains. In the 1990s, South Africa initiated major public-private initiatives for a transportation corridor from Gauteng Province through Mpumalanga province to Maputo in Mozambique, as well as for additional corridors through large urban areas.
Air transport and shipping Air services overland, both passenger and cargo, are operated by state-owned South African Airways, as well as a growing number of private competitors. Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg is South Africa’s primary hub for domestic and international air traffic, with the Cape Town and Durban airports playing an increasing role as international destinations. In Johannesburg, the largest city by far in the country, there is not yet any civic leader who has emerged as the kind who can put transportation on the map of public opinion the way Ramatlakane has done for Johannesburg.
