Mobility
(a) What (i) is the number and (ii) are the details of the taxi routes that are operational in the municipalities in the province and (iii) are the details of the associations that are operating these routes, (b) what is the number of taxi operating permits and/or operating licences that have been issued to the taxi industry and are legal for routes in the province in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022 and (v) 2023 to date, (c) what is the backlog of taxi operating permits per route in the province and (d)(i) what is the number of taxi operating permits that have been revoked per route in the province in for the same period as in (b) above and (ii) what are the reasons for such action?
Not answered yet.
- (i) Data extracted from the Public Transport Regulation System (“PTRS”)
shows that there are 2650 local minibus-taxi routes registered for the Western Cape province. These are routes with both an orgin and destination point within the boundaries of the Western Cape. In addition, there are 578 long distance routes registered for the province. These are routes that cross the boundaries of the Western Cape Province, commonly referred to as national routes.
(ii) The list of local minibus-taxi routes per municipal area as contained in the PTRS is shown in Annexure 1. The list of long distance minibus-taxi routes per municipal area is shown in Annexure 2. In addition, the comparative number of local minibus-taxi routes per municpal area is shown in Annexure 3. The comparative number of long distance routes per municipal area is shown in Annexure 4.
(iii) The list of local minibus-taxi routes per association as contained in the PTRS is shown in Annexure 1. The list of long distance minibus-taxi routes per association is shown in Annexure 2.
- In the Western Cape Province, all permits have been converted to operating licences. Permits were issued in terms of the Road Transportation Act (Act no.74 of 1977) and mostly conferred authority to provide minibus-taxi services within a particular radius or area. These permits were converted to operating licences specifying road-by-road route descriptions. Post the year 2000, operating licences were issued for a definite period not exceeding seven years.
The table below shows the number of new operating licences conferring authority to provide minibus-taxi type services granted between 2019 and 2023. The exponential increase in the number of granted operating licences during 2022 and 2023 can be attributed to the Special Regulatory Process implemented by the City of Cape Town to balance minibus-taxi demand and supply.
Question Ref. | Year | No. of minibus-taxi operating licences granted |
I | 2019 | 266 |
Ii | 2020 | 338 |
Iii | 2021 | 842 |
Iv | 2022 | 2382 |
V | 2023 | 1797 |
(c) In terms of Regulation 8(1) of the National Land Transport Regulations (2009), members of the Provincial Regulatory Entity (“PRE”) must meet often enough to enable them to process applicaitons for operating licences within no more than 60 days. This includes the publication of the application in the Government Gazette for a period of 21 days and the referral of the application to the relevant municipality or munipalities with a request to provide directions based on the approved Integrated Transport Plan for the area. The municipality has a period of 30 days to provide such directions but the PRE may condone late submissions of directions.
Despite the impact of Covid and the declaration of a National State of Disaster, the Western Cape PRE remains the only PRE without an operating licence backlog. Since the beginning of 2022, the PRE disposed of a total of 6315 applications relating to minibus-taxi type services. This includes new applications, applications for additional authority, renewals, transfers as well as late renewals (submitted as new applications). A total of 5536 (88%) applications were disposed of within the legislated 60-day period and 779(12%) applications were disposed of outside of the 60-day period. This was mainly due to conflict and the late submissin of municipal directives. The average turn-around time for applications is 46 days. There are currently only 3 applications pending with the PRE that are outside of the 60-day period (awaiting open hearings).
- (i) For the period 2019 to 2023 (present), a total of 16 operating licences
were withdrawn by the PRE.
(ii) Out of the 16 operating licences withdrawn/cancelled by the PRE, a total of 7 were cancelled because the holder did not provide the service authorised by the operating licence on a regular basis within the last 180-day period. These operating licences were cancelled using the provisions of section 78 of the National Land Trasnport Act (Act no. 5 of 2009)(NLTA). The remaining 9 operating licences were withdrawn/cancelled for violations of operating licence conditions or because the operating licence was issued erroneously or on the basis of false or misleading information.
Year | Operating licences Cancelled by the PRE |
2019 | 1 |
2020 | 0 |
2021 | 0 |
2022 | 3 |
2023 | 12 |
ANNEXURE 3 – Number of local minibus-taxi routes per municipal area
