The City of Cape Town will, as from 8 September 2025, implement changes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Dial-a-Ride (DaR) service. The City can confirm that the DaR service will continue to transport eligible wheelchair users and people with severe walking impairments between their places of work and home.
The Dial-a-Ride (DaR) service was implemented in 2002 with the mandate to support those who, due to the nature of their physical impairments, are unable to access conventional public transport services for their daily commute between home and work.
Over the past two decades, however, the service has expanded to include commuter trips to educational, medical, recreational facilities, shopping centres, and private home visits and the user base grew to include users with other special needs.
Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, the DaR service needs to be realigned with its core mandate: namely to transport eligible wheelchair users and those with severe walking impairments, and to limit these trips between the users’ homes and places of work.
The current budget deficit amounts to nearly R1 million a month and the operational costs will continue to increase. As such, it is impossible to sustain the DaR service over the longer term without implementing changes.
It is important to add that the provision of specialised welfare transport services traditionally falls within the remit of other spheres of government, and that the City has made every reasonable effort to secure additional support and funding from these entities to sustain the service at its current levels. Unfortunately, our repeated and continued requests for additional funding were unsuccessful.
Thus, to summarise:
- The DaR service is over-subscribed due to the expansion of the service beyond its core mandate
- The DaR service is experiencing severe capacity challenges where the demand exceeds the available resources
- The annual budget for the service is R28,2 million, while the annual operating costs amount to R40 million currently
- The service needs to be curtailed to operate within the available budget
As from 8 September 2025, the following will apply:
- The DaR service will be transporting eligible wheelchair users and those with severe walking impairments
- The service will be available during peak periods, from Monday to Friday, with minimal services on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays for those who need to go to work
- The service will transport users between their places of work and home only
- Eligible users will be able to book trips to work via the DaR app, website, or call centre as is the case currently
The City is busy engaging users, user groups, and stakeholders to inform them of the amended eligibility criteria, requirements to qualify, and amended service offering.
• It is important to note that over the past 23 years, new public transport service offerings have become available to those with special needs: the MyCiTi bus service is universally accessible, and guide dogs are allowed; specialist e-hailing services are available and offer user-friendly apps with accessibility features; and organisations representing user groups with special needs also provide subsidised transport services.
The above changes will assist to ensure the DaR service operates within the approved budget; is sustainable; and aligned with its core mandate.
The City will guide current users as best it can in finding alternatives, and regrets that it is no longer able to provide the expanded service.
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