When the Department of Transport recently updated its portfolio committee on mega transport projects around South Africa, Cape Town’s IRT project was highlighted for its progress in delivering high-quality infrastructure that is an example to other cities.

Here’s what some of the country’s other mega projects are costing:

• R29 billion for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, which seeks to address congestion in the country’s economic heartland. The South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) says the project will ‘significantly reduce traffic congestion and unblock access to economic opportunities and social development projects’. Also part of the project is the upgrading of 24 interchanges and the implementation of an intelligent transport system of cameras and notice boards.
• R25.4 billion for the Gautrain project between O R Tambo Airport, the centre of Johannesburg and Pretoria. The project comprises trains and 25 feeder buses, with stations that will integrate with the Rea Vaya as that bus rapid transit network expands across the city. Property prices along the route have begun to rise, other spin-offs include procurement from and sub-contracting to 260 BEEs to the value of R1.4 billion, the creation of 13 400 jobs, and the training of 11 000 unskilled and semi-skilled people.
• R7 billion for King Shaka International Airport, the new airport north of Durban, which will open in time for the World Cup. The airport will handle 7.5 million passengers a year.
• R7.7 billion for the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme, a much-delayed and controversial plan to replace old minibus taxi vehicles. By July 2009, 27 800 vehicles had been scrapped and R1,4 billion paid out to operators.
• R3 billion for Phase 1A and B of Rea Vaya, with much of the funding coming from the national Public Transport Infrastructure & Systems Fund (PTIS).
  
  

In recent years, the Airports Company South Africa has also allocated R20 billion for airport upgrades countrywide, and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) has allocated R18 billion for the overhaul of rolling stock and refurbishment of coaches, including the launch of the Soweto, Tshwane and Khayelitsha business express trains.

Of the four cities – Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria – that are working on ‘catalytic projects’ for establishing integrated public transport networks, Cape Town and Johannesburg have made the most progress.


The Department’s Khibi Manana said the Cape Town IRT was making ‘good progress’ with ‘high quality dedicated roadways and stations’. Now that additional funding had been made available, the City of Cape Town was actively building up its capacity ahead of the launch.

Manana said that while funding remained a challenge for all four cities involved, the national government was committed to supporting the projects. In Cape Town, the funds needed to complete Phase 1A were ‘substantially provided for’ in the new Division of Revenue Act allocation, which now allowed funding to be committed into future years to assist the City with implementation.

While the cost of the IRT runs into the billions, the expenditure on bus-based systems is regarded in terms of the national transport strategy as necessary, long overdue and cost-effective, when compared for instance to the cost of expanding the passenger rail network or the cost to the economy of continuing on the current course of increased congestion on the roads.

In the short term, upgrading transport infrastructure and implementing major public transport improvements comes with a heavy price tag. In the end, though, despite the months of inconvenience, the benefits are very real — even without the multiplier effects that ripple through the economy as a result of the construction activity.