This article looks at changes in transport policies in South Africa and especially the impact made by the removal of Apartheid policy. The background is the domination of major passenger and freight transport modes by government-owned carriers. Fares have been heavily subsidised both internally by the carriers and directly by local and central government. Over the last two decades cross subsidies by carriers have decreased and direct subsidies have increased as the government has tried to keep the cost of commuting within the reach of the non-white worker who generally has further to travel. During the 1980s commuter traffic shifted from public subsidised transport to unregulated, market-priced taxis. Recent attempts to deregulate the non-rail passenger secter resulted in overloaded taxis, poorly trained drivers and high accident rates. Competitive tendering for contracts was seen as biased in favour of white operators with the required management skills. The proposals were scrapped after one year. The effects of legislation covering the Transport Advisory Council, the Transport Deregulation Act and the Air Services Licensing Act are described. Air Services are dominated by the government-owned carrier South African Airways (SAA) and the government has proposed measures to diffuse this dominance.
Abstract