Hypocrisy squared: Blue-light driven Ramaphosa, Mbalula urge us to use public transport

When you are chauffeur-driven in blue-light convoys, it’s hypocritical to urge the hoi polloi to use public transport.

Both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula made the same call last week, without a hint of irony.

Transport month is once again a silly season. Do as we say, not as we do. You plebs go via public transport, we’ll use escorted luxury.

From his limited experience, Ramaphosa knows public transport sucks.

In March, he and Gauteng Premier David Makhura boarded a Metrorail train at Mabopane, bound for Pretoria. What should have been a 45-minute journey starting at 6.30am, ended at 10.40am. Delays are routine for Metrorail passengers.

So too are overcrowding, assault, robbery and the torching of carriages.

In May, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) employees threatened to strike because their lives are in danger. They said colleagues had been murdered because of a lack of security at Metrorail.

Mbalula knows train services are in trouble.

At the launch of the State of Safety report by the Railway Safety Regulator, he said he would quit his job if he failed to fix passenger rail. Someone should have asked him, “By when?”

Cape Town’s rail service has been particularly badly hit, with 176 arson attacks between 2015 and 2019.

Vandalism, train delays and cancellations plague that network, according to the safety report.

The broader passenger rail network has seen services cut back and is yet to recover from corruption scandals.

Strikes are common on bus services, adding to their unreliability.

If public transport in South Africa was anywhere near adequate, the minibus taxi industry would not be so large and lawless.

Minibus taxis play a vital role, transporting millions daily. Yet there is no proper planning at national, provincial or local level.

When we complain that minibus taxis stop anywhere, we should also note there are not enough designated places for them to pull over, drop off or pick up passengers.

This doesn’t excuse reckless driving. But we do need to acknowledge that minibuses are not properly catered for.

Are minibus taxis classified as public transport? That depends on how you define public transport.

If the term denotes, “buses, trains, and other forms of transport that are available to the public, charge set fares, and run on fixed routes”, then minibus taxis are included. And few would claim that minibus taxis are safe, reliable and law-abiding.

Taken together, South Africa’s train, bus and minibus taxi industries are not safe or reliable. Trains and buses do not cover enough routes to make them a viable choice for enough people.

So Ramaphosa and Mbalula should not talk rubbish by telling people to use public transport.

Instead they should devote more energy to fixing and expanding public transport.

If people knew they could safely, reliably and economically get around without using private cars, they’d do so.

Ramaphosa should set the tone by ordering Cabinet ministers, among others, to use public transport for all official engagements. One-off stunts are unconvincing.

Martin Williams, DA councillor and former editor of The Citizen.

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