While Cape Town bus commuters are spared for now, taxi passengers will have to brace for a fare increase, following this week’s record fuel hike.
With the price of petrol up R1 to R16.85 this week, taxi associations say they have no choice but to raise prices.
On Wednesday, members of the South African National Taxi Association (Santaco) met with the Mitchells Plain Taxi Association to discuss the increase.
They said commuters can expect to pay between R1 and R2 more per trip, but could not say when exactly this would take effect.
And despite the cost of diesel going up by R1.24 a litre, both MyCiTi and Golden Arrow have indicated prices will remain the same for now.
Nazeem Abdurahman, the deputy chairperson of Santaco, says taxi owners have been “subsidising” the public by absorbing petrol price hikes but they can’t do it anymore.
“We are looking to increase, we have been subsidising the commuters from our pockets,” he says.
“Annual increases are usually between R1 and R2.”
Arthur Williams, the chairperson of the Mitchells Plain Taxi Association says they are being “held hostage” by the increasing cost of fuel.
“There has already been between two and three petrol increases so this is overdue. The last time we had an increase was last year,” he says.
Derick Meyer, the General Manager for Golden Arrow Bus Services, says increases are not on the table as yet but warned this could change if diesel prices increase any more.
“While Golden Arrow will do everything possible to absorb these increases, it may become necessary in the coming months to review current fare prices should this trend continue,” he says.
Brett Herron, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Transport says while MyCiTi’s annual fare increase came into play on 1 July 2018, there is provision in the tariff structure to provide for more increases in the event of “unexpected large fuel price increases”.
“At this stage we are not considering a fare increase. Should the need arise - in the event of the rand weakening substantially together with a steep increase of the oil price - such an increase will be communicated to commuters well in advance.”
Meanwhile, Uber said it will be revising incentives from Monday, depending on how the petrol hike affects profits.
“The revised fuel incentive is calculated to offset the additional weekly costs incurred by full-time drivers,” a spokesperson said.