Disability activists disrupt City of Cape Town transport meeting over Dial-a-Ride cuts

Disability activists move through the Civic Centre to disrupt a meeting of the Urban Mobility Portfolio Committee. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana

On Thursday morning, disability activists disrupted an Urban Mobility Portfolio Committee meeting at the Civic Centre over planned cuts to the City of Cape Town’s Dial-a-Ride service.

Among them were users of the transport service and representatives from Disability Revolution, QuadPara Association of South Africa, and #UniteBehind.
The municipality announced last month that from Monday, 8 September, the service will only be available for people who use wheelchairs or have severe walking impairments.

People with visual and cognitive impairments, elderly people, and organisations using the service to transport people with disabilities will no longer be accommodated.

Disability organisations have written an open letter to the municipality, started a petition, protested and launched a BackaBuddy fundraising campaign to stop the planned cuts.

The Western Cape Network on Disability has also launched an urgent application in the Cape High Court, which is set down to be heard on Friday.

Chairing Thursday’s meeting, the City’s Oversight Committee chairperson for Urban Mobility, Mikhail Manuel said: “There will be no discussions or questions regarding Dial-a-Ride, as there will be a separate session for that in October.”

But as one of the councillors started their presentation regarding the Urban Mobility budget, Revolution Disability member Khanyo Mantshi switched on his desk microphone and spoke.

“So we are not going to talk about the decisions regarding Dial-a-Ride, but we are told we have freedom in this country?” said Mantshi. “What freedom when decisions are made about us without us? Why is the Dial-a-Ride issue only going to be discussed next month?”

Coordinator at Disability Revolution, Nontsasa Mteza, also took the mic, saying: “I am so disappointed because Dial-a-Ride is a burning issue for the committee.”

“Last year we were promised by the portfolio committee that we would be invited to meetings, but we have received not one invite to participate in these meetings,” #UniteBehind’s political education and materials coordinator Adam Narain said at the meeting.

After voicing their concerns, the representatives left the meeting.

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