By Palesa Matlala
- ActionSA says Cape Town residents would ride MyCiTi buses free on weekdays, with a R100-a-night tourist levy helping to pay the bill.
- Mayoral candidate Dereleen James says municipal rates would be frozen for at least a year while the city’s charges are investigated.
Free bus rides and a break from rising municipal rates.
That is ActionSA’s big promise to Cape Town residents as the party fights for votes ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
ActionSA mayoral candidate Dereleen James says the party wants to make Cape Town cheaper for families struggling to make ends meet.
Her plans include free MyCiTi bus trips for residents on weekdays and freezing municipal rates for at least a year.
James said families are being forced to make difficult choices as electricity, transport and other household bills eat into their income.
“We hear the mothers and the gogos saying to us, ‘Do we cook outside or do we keep some electricity units at night? I think there have been three adjustments for the last two years and our salaries haven’t increased.’”
She said ActionSA would freeze municipal rates for at least a year if it takes control of Cape Town.
During that time, the party says it would examine the city’s charges to find out why residents are paying so much.
“Every time you buy R100 units, you see there’s a further deduction for outstanding rates and taxes as well,” James said.
“We are saying, as ActionSA, we will have a freeze on rates at least for the next year so that we can audit and find out why it is that residents have to pay so much money.”
But ActionSA’s biggest promise could be its plan to make weekday MyCiTi trips free for Cape Town residents.
The party says MyCiTi currently carries about 65,000 passenger trips every day.
According to figures released by ActionSA, the bus service cost about R1.7-billion to operate during the 2024/25 financial year and brought in R336-million from passengers.
So where would the money for free trips come from?
ActionSA wants visitors staying in short-term accommodation to pay a R100 levy for every night they spend in Cape Town.
The party estimates the levy could bring in between R975-million and R1.3-billion a year.
Its calculation is based on about 26,000 short-term rental properties, with bookings for around 250 nights a year and one or two tourists in each booking.
ActionSA believes that would more than cover the money MyCiTi currently gets from passenger fares.
James said tourist levies are already used in other parts of the world.
“This isn’t something that we will be doing as a first of its kind, this is according to best practices,” she said.
She said online accommodation booking services could help collect the money.
“We have many service providers like Booking.com, where we can generate that levy. So that’s one way of just regulating it. It’s not like it hasn’t been done before.”
ActionSA also wants to introduce a MyCape Card that could eventually make it easier for commuters to move between MyCiTi, trains run by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and minibus taxis.
The party says transport costs are putting major pressure on Cape Town households.
It also claims the average Cape Town road user loses 96 hours every year sitting in traffic, costing the city’s economy around R3-billion in lost activity.
The free bus proposal is part of ActionSA’s wider campaign to make Cape Town more affordable.
James was announced as the party’s Cape Town mayoral candidate in June.
She has also made safety a major part of her campaign, saying crime, gangsterism and drug abuse are among the problems she wants the city to tackle.
ActionSA did not contest Cape Town wards in the 2021 local government elections. It is now trying to establish itself as an alternative in a city currently controlled by the Democratic Alliance.
James will be among the candidates trying to unseat Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis when voters head to the polls on 4 November.
For voters battling transport, electricity and municipal bills, ActionSA is hoping the promise of free weekday buses and a break from rates increases will be enough to win their support.
But for now, they remain election promises that will depend on ActionSA winning enough political power in Cape Town to put them into action.
Pictured above: ActionSA Cape Town mayoral candidate Dereleen James.
Image source: File
