Rea Vaya bus operations halted again — taxi industry outrage sparks commuter turmoil

5 Nov 2024

Johannesburg’s Rea Vaya bus company has a delicate relationship with the taxi industry in a strategic partnership often marred by underlying tensions.

The latest conflict between Rea Vaya operations and the taxi industry culminated in another suspension of bus operations on Monday, 4 November 2024, leaving thousands of Rea Vaya commuters in the lurch.

Commuters received the following message on Rea Vaya’s social media platforms:

“Rea Vaya Passengers are informed that buses are temporarily suspended until further notice. Some transport stakeholders have raised issues relating to feeder routes. We are engaging with them to establish the cause of the problem. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

According to Johannesburg MMC for Transport Kenny Kunene, the taxi industry was “angered” by the deployment of a new fleet of 45 feeder buses on Monday to replace broken-down vehicles.

Kunene said the buses did not bear the province’s “GP” registration letters, leading the taxi industry to assume that a new business was working with Rea Vaya outside their agreement with the city and bus operator.

“The taxi industry became very angry because as per the industry standards, a vehicle must be operated with the registration of the particular province,” Kunene said.

MMC Kunene said he met Mahier Tayob, the business rescue practitioner for the Rea Vaya Bus Operating Company (BOC) Piotrans, a team from the transport department and chairpersons of taxi associations in Soweto on Tuesday to try to resolve the issue.

PioTrans entered business rescue in 2023 after it was unable to pay creditors, which had caused a series of service interruptions.

Read more: Inside the Herculean efforts to rehabilitate the operator of Johannesburg’s Rea Vaya bus system

“We have explained what the 45 buses are, and that it is not a new business but still part of the Piotrans fleet brought to beef up service as many buses have broken down,” said Kunene.

“We agreed that the taxi leaders will go back to their constituencies and engage in a consultative process, and then we will meet again on Monday to discuss what the consultations have agreed to,” Kunene said.

Kunene said it had been a mistake for the buses to be deployed with the wrong registration number plates.

He said that all the other 60 Rea Vaya buses would continue to operate – “The only buses that are not going to operate are the 45 feeder buses.”

Kunene did not respond to Daily Maverick’s further query about the resumption of operations on Wednesday.

Unpaid dues

From its inception in 2009, Johannesburg’s Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit System has received a hostile reception from taxi operators who have often disrupted bus services.

In its efforts to find common ground and ease tensions, the city included the taxi industry in the Rea Vaya system by making them shareholders in the bus network. But problems have continued.

On Friday, 1 November 2024, members of the taxi sector marched to the offices of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Dada Morero to demand money stemming from their 2016 deal with the city. The taxi operators gave the city a week to respond with a payment plan.

In a 2016 public transport joint venture, the City of Johannesburg pledged to compensate taxi operators to facilitate the bus system.

The 2016 joint venture saw more than 150 minibus taxi owners shift gears, teaming up with the City of Johannesburg and bus giant Putco to ink the Rea Vaya Bus Operating Company Agreement (BOCA).

The multimillion-rand venture marked a new era in mainstream public transport, blending grassroots entrepreneurship with urban transport innovation.

In terms of the agreement, taxi operators and Putco would become shareholders in Litsamaiso, the joint venture that has been steering the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system along the Phase 1B routes since 2009.

Taxi operators acquired a 75% stake in the joint venture, with Putco retaining 25%. The contract, valued at R160.3-million for the first year, replaced a temporary arrangement in place since 2013. Taxi operators say the city hasn’t paid the R160.3-million.

The deal, which underwent negotiations for more than a year, saw taxi operators enticed with promises of more than R830,000 per vehicle to stop operating on Rea Vaya routes to pave the way for the smooth rollout of the Bus Rapid Transit system.

This meant that the taxi operators and Putco buses would cease to operate along the specified trunk, feeder and complementary routes – making Rea Vaya the sole public transport provider on those routes.

Taxi industry ‘betrayed’

“Some associations felt betrayed by their members who entered the deal and they were expelled. All those operators are not working now, they are starving,” Top Six taxi association spokesperson Vusumuzi Mtambo recently told Daily Maverick.

Taxi operator Patrick Zwane said, “Some people lost their livelihoods because of the Rea Vaya deal. It’s not fair to keep us waiting this long. We have families to feed and businesses to look after.”

“The deal had brought us more misery than good. We have been patient with the city while all this time Rea Vaya continues to operate freely,” Zwane said.

Another taxi operator, Mshiyeni Mpungose, said the City of Johannesburg was disrespecting the taxi industry.

“The city pays everyone except the taxi industry. The city acts like we are asking for a loan. We are not asking for a loan. We have a deal.”

“Our businesses are falling apart. We need the money to buy vehicles. Some of us are drowning in debt, yet we have been waiting for the money for eight years,” he said.

On Friday, City of Johannesburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane confirmed receipt of the taxi industry memorandum and said the city had committed to respond.

“The city received the memorandum from the taxi operators and has committed to respond within the seven days requested by the operators within the parameters of the contract signed with the operators.”

He did not respond to questions about whether the city had paid taxi operators in line with the 2016 deal. DM

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Unpaid dues

Taxi industry ‘betrayed’