The cheapest South African cities for transport – and how long it will take you to get to work
Statistics South Africa has released its latest General Household Survey, looking at key statistics across South Africa’s eight major metros.
The target population of the survey consists of all private households in all nine provinces of South Africa and residents in workers’ hostels – meaning it is representative of current population groups and living arrangements.
One of the largest parts of the survey focuses on transport, and how South Africans choose to travel every day.
When looking at public transportation options, minibus taxis remain by far the most popular choice, with an average of 32.9 million passenger trips made every month across the eight metros.
In comparison, a much smaller amount of people use buses (5.29 million passenger trips every month), and trains (5,22 million passenger trips every month).
Passenger trips made each month (‘000)
| Mode of transport | Cape Town | Buffalo City | Nelson Mandela Bay | Mangaung | eThekwini | Ekurhuleni | Johannesburg | Tshwane | All metros |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minibus/taxi | 4 311 | 680 | 1 538 | 888 | 5 655 | 5 471 | 10 093 | 4 279 | 32 915 |
| Bus | 1 642 | 85 | 357 | 371 | 628 | 422 | 1 077 | 706 | 5 286 |
| Train | 1 703 | 175 | 31 | 33 | 772 | 991 | 954 | 562 | 5 220 |
% of the household’s income spent on transport per month
The survey also found that transport is still relatively costly for many South Africans, with a large number spending 30% or more of their household income on travelling costs.
According to the data, eThekwini is the worst in this regard with over a third of all households (36.3%) spending 30% or more of their income on transport every month.
In comparison, the majority of Capetonians (57%) spend just 1%-10% of their household incomes on transport every month.
| Percentage spent | Cape Town | Buffalo City | Nelson Mandela Bay | Mangaung | eThekwini | Ekurhuleni | Johannesburg | Tshwane | All metros |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-10% | 57.6% | 50% | 42.4% | 50.9% | 25.0% | 47.2% | 40.1% | 41.8% | 43.3% |
| 11-20% | 22.3% | 25% | 34.4% | 25.3% | 28.0% | 24.8% | 20.6% | 26.0% | 24.4% |
| 21-30% | 8.5% | 11.1% | 11.1% | 11.2% | 10.7% | 9.6% | 11.4% | 13.0% | 10.6% |
| 30% or more | 11.6% | 13.9% | 12.2% | 12.6% | 36.3% | 18.4% | 27.9% | 19.3% | 21.7% |
% of workers travelling for longer than 30 minutes to their place of work/school
Of course costs are not the only way to measure the impact of transport on South African households, with most motorists having to navigate traffic on their daily work and school commutes.
Stats SA found that the City of Tshwane was the worst in this regard, with 52% of workers travelling for longer than 30 minutes to their place of work. In comparison less than 6.9% of commuters in Nelson Mandela Bay said that it takes them longer than half an hour to get to work.
Similar patterns can be seen in the amount of time it takes to get to school, with just 3.2% of Nelson Mandela Bay residents stating it takes longer than half an hour to get to their place of education, while 21.1% of Tshwane residents said it took them more than 30 minutes.
| Cape Town | Buffalo City | Nelson Mandela Bay | Mangaung | eThekwini | Ekurhuleni | Johannesburg | Tshwane | All metros | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School | 15.6% | 16.6% | 3.2% | 12.3% | 15.2% | 16.5% | 18.9% | 21.1% | 16.5% |
| Work | 48.5% | 22.7% | 6.9% | 25.9% | 36.5% | 42.1% | 50.8% | 52.0% | 43.5% |
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