Abstract
South Africa has had a policy of competitive tendering for the provision of public
transport services (subsidised commuter bus services) since the mid-1980s. Although
this policy approach was conceptualised by the previous government, prior to the
transfer of political power in 1994, it was reaffirmed in a 1996 White Paper on National
Transport Policy. Despite the nearly 25 years that have passed since the intention to
tender services, only about 32% of the subsidy budget is currently spent on some form
of contracting. The majority of services are still operated on authorisations (interim
contracts) which formalised services that operators were operating pre-1994. The
purpose of this paper is to analyse the reasons why public transport contracting policy
progress has been so slow in South Africa. The paper relies on an extensive study
that was conducted regarding policy implementation obstacles in general, as well as
a questionnaire survey among the subsidised commuter bus operators to solicit their
views on the reasons for the delay in the implementation of the contracting system
in the country. The findings of the survey indicate that the major issues hindering the
implementation of the contracting system are to be found in a lack of funding, lack of
capacity to implement policy and major operational issues in the permit offices.