Open letter: Dial-a-Ride cuts will strand thousands of disabled residents

An open letter to the Mayor of Cape Town and the media.

We, the Western Cape Network on Disability, write with deep concern and anger at the City of Cape Town's announcement on 7 August 2025 that the Dial-a-Ride (DaR) service will be drastically reduced from 8 September 2025. Under the new criteria, the service will only transport certain wheelchair users and people with severe walking impairments, and only between home and work during peak hours. All trips to education, healthcare, recreation, community activities, sport, and other essential services will be cut. Blind and visually impaired users will be excluded entirely.

This decision is not simply a budgetary adjustment. It is a denial of the constitutional right to equality, dignity, and full participation in society. For many disabled people, DaR is the only form of accessible transport available. The claim that there are viable alternatives such as MyCiTi buses, specialist e-hailing, or NGO transport is misleading. MyCiTi does not serve all areas, its infrastructure is not fully accessible, and hardware often fails. Golden Arrow buses remain inaccessible despite legislation. Specialist e-hailing is prohibitively expensive for most, and may still refuse users with assistance dogs despite their official policy. NGO transport is already overstretched, despite the fact that providing public transport is not the mandate of disability organisations. Many of us run small budgets and rely on donor funding to deliver essential support services, not to operate city-wide transport systems. Expecting NGOs to fill the gap left by the City is both unrealistic and unfair, and shifts the responsibility away from the authorities who are legally and morally obliged to ensure accessible public transport for all.

Dial-a-Ride was never meant to be a permanent separate system. It was supposed to be a temporary measure until mainstream public transport was made fully accessible. More than 20 years later, that goal has not been achieved. Instead of addressing this systemic failure, the City is cutting the only service that many disabled residents can use to get to school, hospital, the shops, or places of worship. If the same restrictions were imposed on non-disabled residents, telling them they could only use public transport to get to work, there would be public outrage.

The City cites a budget shortfall of R1 million per month. Yet no financial shortfall can justify cutting people off from medical care, education, and community life. This decision will leave people isolated in their homes, unable to maintain their health, and unable to participate in the cultural and social life of the city. In addition, as the service will only be available to those with employment, many will presumably be unable to access work opportunities by attending interviews.

The way this decision has been communicated is also unacceptable. There was no genuine consultation with the disability sector. Many of us learned of these cuts from other users or the media. This comes after years of trying to build a working relationship with the City. Announcing these changes without warning undermines trust and makes a mockery of so-called engagement processes.

We call on the City of Cape Town to:

1. Halt the planned restrictions to the Dial-a-Ride service.
2. Engage urgently and transparently with representative organisations of persons with disabilities to co-create sustainable solutions.
3. Commit to implementing a fully accessible, integrated public transport system for Cape Town, in line with the Constitution, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, and South Africa's obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

We further call on the media, civil society, and the public to stand with the disability community in opposing these cuts. Accessibility is not a privilege. It is a right.