Engaging the paratransit sector in Cape Town on public transport reform: Progress, process and risks

In this paper the authors discuss the details of the offer that has been made to paratransit operators, progress towards finalising negotiations around that offer, risk factors inherent in the current approach to engagement, and issues that have emerged around the reform programme - insofar as it affects and involves paratransit - which may impact upon future phases of the reform programme. These emerging issues include: the feasibility of continued financial compensation for withdrawing existing operating permissions in view of broader fiscal concerns around BRT implementation; a lack of insight into the fundamental factors driving the responses of paratransit operators and associations to the reform programme; and concerns around a national public transport reform policy that may not be sufficiently grounded in the local contexts within which municipalities and operators function.