Dial-a-Ride and MyCiTi commuters hit by major hike in fares

• By Mary-Anne Gontsana, GroundUp – re-imagined and expanded*

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Midnight Math: How One Grant Is Forced to Cover a City’s Gaps

Debbie Bedien’s phone buzzes at 00:03 on the first of every month. The SMS from Sassa lands like clockwork: “R2 390 has been paid into your account.” Before the sun rises over Belhar, the 47-year-old single mother has already sliced that money into paper-thin portions. Rent swallows R1 400. Pre-paid electricity - gone in ten days - takes R250. Toiletries and detergent cost R200. Data for her sons’ homework eats another R340. That leaves R200 for “life.” Life, in Bedien’s ledger, means Dial-a-Ride, the door-to-door minibus fleet the City has run since 1994 for anyone who cannot climb into ordinary taxis or buses.

Bedien tips the scale at 26 kg and lives with osteogenesis imperfecta. Her bones have snapped more than 200 times; her titanium chair weighs 9 kg and cost more than a second-hand hatchback. Because she cannot push herself up Cape Town’s roller-coaster hills, she books Dial-a-Ride for physiotherapy at Groote Schuur, the Athlone pool that keeps her lungs clear, the supermarket with a ramp, and the Anglican church where she sings alto. Until 30 June each ride under five kilometres set her back R12. On 1 July the fare leapt to R17, a 41 % jump that carves another R100–R150 off the “life” column of her spreadsheet.

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Fuel, Politics and a Detour Around the Public

Rob Quintas, the City’s mayoral committee member for urban mobility, blames “relentless upward pressure on global diesel prices.” Wholesale diesel, he says, climbed from R17.59 in January 2026 to R30.30 in May, adding R36-million to the four-month operating bill. Yet Bedien and other regulars detect a second agenda: they suspect the City is trying to nudge them off the service after the 2025 “realignment” plan that would have restricted rides to wheelchair users who cannot walk 200 m unaided, cutting out travellers with visual, intellectual or psychosocial disabilities. A coalition anchored by Disability Revolution and #UniteBehind interdicted the plan in the Western Cape High Court last December; affidavits are still outstanding.

Nontsasa Mteza, who coordinates Disability Revolution, calls the fare hike “realignment by stealth.” “If the Constitution bars you from shoving people off the bus, you simply make the ticket price a wall,” she argues. Public participation was reduced to an online questionnaire that attracted 312 replies - fewer than 4 % of June’s 8 400 registered users. Section 4 of the Municipal Systems Act requires meaningful consultation; the City insists the survey plus two virtual meetings satisfied the clause.

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Every Kilometre Has a Price Tag - And a Subsidy

GroundUp spent seven days riding the customised minibuses. Each vehicle carries a rear tail-lift, four-point wheelchair clamps and CCTV. Internal spreadsheets show the per-kilometre cost to the City is R10.73. The old tariff recouped 30 % from passengers; the new one claws back 40 %. Put differently, when Bedien travels the 4.8 km from her flat to Vincent-Palotti Clinic the City still chips in about R25, but her portion rises from R12 to R17. For the 62 km Atlantis–City Bowl run the subsidy balloons to R622 per single journey. Quintas warns that any deeper subsidy would “cannibalise” fire-and-rescue or road-maintenance budgets.

By continental standards Cape Town’s 60 % subsidy ratio is stingy. Johannesburg’s MjiPSpecial runs at 78 %, eThekwini’s door-to-door is 100 % free, and Windhoek scrapped user fees after a 2021 Supreme Court ruling declared them unconstitutional indirect discrimination. Cape Town, advocates say, operates closer to a low-cost airline model than a social service.

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Diesel, Tyres and the Long Wait for Batteries

Volatile fuel is only one stressor. Over the past 18 months tyre prices rose 22 % after floods knocked out synthetic-rubber plants in Thailand. Spare parts for the European tail-lifts take up to four months to clear customs. Drivers earn R18 000 a month - less than some e-hailing operators - yet must hold a professional driving permit and level-three first-aid certificate. “We move fragile bodies through a fragile supply chain,” one driver shrugs. The existing fleet of 178 vehicles averages eleven years; 21 minibuses are already parked awaiting major component replacements.

The City floated a tender in March 2026 for five battery-electric minibuses to blunt diesel shocks. Only the BYD-Otokar consortium met the 3.5-ton tail-lift spec, and rollout is unlikely before late 2027. Meanwhile the collapse of passenger rail - 40 % of routes shut after cable theft and arson - pushed 600 000 former rail commuters onto buses, driving peak-hour MyCiTi demand up 18 %. Dial-a-Ride’s waiting list has ballooned to 4 300 names, yet the City cannot add more vehicles until National Treasury releases a R2.1-billion universal-design grant that has been stuck in paperwork since 2022.

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Apps, Hacks and the Court Case That Could Reset the Rules

Users refuse to wait passively. WhatsApp groups such as “Dial-a-Ride hacks CT” trade work-arounds: how to piggy-back grocery stops onto medical trips without breaching the single-destination rule, which clinics open early enough to qualify for the cheaper 06:30–08:30 window, and how to keep an elderly neighbour’s account alive by booking in her name. A Google Sheet that predicts - accurately 72 % of the time - whether a pooled trip will exceed 60 km and trigger the top fare band is pinned to the chat.

Disability Revolution and #UniteBehind are preparing to widen their court battle beyond eligibility to affordability. They will argue that Section 27 of the Constitution - access to health care - presupposes affordable transport to reach those facilities. If successful, the City could be forced to cap Dial-a-Ride fares at a fixed percentage of the disability grant, mirroring the indigent rebate it already applies to property rates. Officials privately warn that such a precedent could ripple across municipal services and threaten the City’s credit rating if new revenue is not found.

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Friday Afternoon Ledger: When Motion Costs More Than Bread

Back in Belhar, Bedien wheels up to a coffee table propped on bricks so she can slide underneath. July’s diary is colour-coded: green for medical, blue for social, red for “cancelled-cost-too-much.” Three slots are already crimson. She refuses to pencil in August. “If I can’t find the fare, I can’t afford the future,” she says. Outside, the Cape winter wind thrashes a loose corrugated-iron roof, a sound that drags her back to childhood days when her mother ferried her to under-funded special schools in a blanket-lined wheelbarrow. Decades later she still travels on wheels, only now the price of movement is higher than the price of a loaf of bread.

{"faq": [{"question": "

Why did Cape Town increase Dial-a-Ride fares?

", "answer": "Cape Town increased Dial-a-Ride fares primarily due to rising global diesel prices and increasing operational costs. The city also aims to recover a larger percentage of the service's costs from passengers, shifting from a 30% to a 40% recovery rate. However, critics argue this is a 'realignment by stealth' tactic to reduce service usage after a previous plan to restrict eligibility was legally challenged."}, {"question": "

Who is Debbie Bedien and how is she affected by the fare increase?

", "answer": "Debbie Bedien is a 47-year-old single mother living with osteogenesis imperfecta, a condition that has led to over 200 bone fractures. She relies on Dial-a-Ride for essential trips like physiotherapy, swimming for lung health, grocery shopping, and church. The fare increase from R12 to R17 per trip, a 41% jump, significantly impacts her already tight budget, forcing her to cancel essential trips and making movement a luxury rather than a necessity."}, {"question": "

What was the public's involvement in the fare increase decision?

", "answer": "Public participation in the fare increase decision was minimal. The city conducted an online questionnaire that received only 312 replies, which is fewer than 4% of the service's 8,400 registered users in June. Despite this, the City insists that this survey, along with two virtual meetings, satisfied the requirement for meaningful consultation under Section 4 of the Municipal Systems Act. Critics, however, argue that this level of engagement was insufficient and undermines democratic principles."}, {"question": "

How does Cape Town's Dial-a-Ride subsidy compare to other cities?

", "answer": "Cape Town's Dial-a-Ride service has a 60% subsidy ratio, which is considered 'stingy' by continental standards. For comparison, Johannesburg's MjiPSpecial service runs at a 78% subsidy, and eThekwini's door-to-door service is 100% free. Windhoek even scrapped user fees after a 2021 Supreme Court ruling declared them unconstitutional indirect discrimination. This suggests Cape Town operates closer to a low-cost airline model than a social service."}, {"question": "

What challenges does the Dial-a-Ride service face beyond fuel costs?

", "answer": "Beyond volatile fuel prices, the Dial-a-Ride service faces several challenges. These include a 22% rise in tyre prices due to supply chain issues, long delays (up to four months) for spare parts for tail-lifts, and the need for drivers to hold specialized permits and first-aid certificates while earning less than some e-hailing operators. The fleet itself is aging, with an average age of eleven years, and 21 minibuses are currently awaiting major component replacements. Additionally, the collapse of passenger rail has increased demand on other public transport, and a crucial R2.1-billion universal-design grant has been stuck in paperwork since 2022."}, {"question": "

What legal action are disability advocates taking regarding Dial-a-Ride?

", "answer": "Disability Revolution and #UniteBehind are preparing to expand their court battle beyond eligibility criteria to address the affordability of Dial-a-Ride. They plan to argue that Section 27 of the Constitution, which guarantees access to healthcare, implicitly requires affordable transport to reach these facilities. If successful, this legal challenge could force the City to cap Dial-a-Ride fares at a fixed percentage of the disability grant, similar to indigent rebates on property rates. City officials are concerned this could set a precedent for other municipal services and potentially impact the City's credit rating if new revenue sources are not identified."}]}