Parliament, Friday, 5 June 2026 - The Portfolio Committee on Transport will invite both the Departments of Transport and Finance, for an update on the consultations around phasing out the grant funding for Bus Rapid Transit system known as Public Transport Network (PTN).
On Tuesday, Minister Barbara Creecy told the committee that a decision had been taken to wind down the grant for underperforming and not achieving what it was intended for. The winding down will be phased over the next three years, but contractual commitments will be honoured.
The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Donald Selamolela, urged the departments to avoid a situation where government funds are lost again in the new consolidated grant system that is being conceptualized.
“At the end of the third quarter both departments should prepare to brief the committee on the consultations they are having around this matter. We cannot have a situation where government money is lost through ill-conceived programmes. The departments need to ensure that this does not happen again,” said Mr Selamolela.
He added: “Our communities and our people must be at the centre of whatever we are doing, and we need to see projects beyond completion and implementation.” He urged the Minister of Transport to think about how sufficient and effective oversight on the new programme could be conducted at this early stage of consultations.
“We just do not want the situation of white elephant projects, and there ought to be critical thinking about how the already existing infrastructure could be repurposed. We are still confronted with traffic congestions due to the apartheid spatial planning. If we are unable to reverse that, then the rethink of the new conceptualization must resolve some of these challenges.”
Mr Selamolela agreed with Minister Creecy that government could not continue to pump money into a failed project, and urged that BRT challenges be avoided.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, MR DONALD SELAMOLELA.
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