Cape Town’s Fleet Tracking Crisis

GOOD Statement by Roscoe Palm, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor:

The GOOD Party is deeply concerned that, as of 1 July, the City of Cape Town may lose oversight of thousands of vehicles and critical infrastructure systems that residents rely on every single day.

Under the current fleet and tracking contract, the City’s system does far more than simply locate bakkies.

It underpins:

• Waste collection, tracking over 938,000 tagged bins;
• Law enforcement, enabling real-time warrant checks via radio;
• Water infrastructure management, through SCADA alarm systems at reservoirs;
• And daily operations via dashboards accessed by more than 1,500 City officials.

Yet, the new contract, Tender 136S, valued at R40 million per year, covers only a fraction of these vital services. No replacement plan has been tabled for the remaining functionality. As it stands, these systems risk going dark next Tuesday.

This raises urgent questions:

• Will refuse trucks operate without verification tools?
• Will law enforcement be able to trace stolen City vehicles?
• Will a fleet of over 10,000 vehicles be managed without real-time oversight?

You cannot manage what you cannot measure. With a fuel bill exceeding R40 million per month, the inability to monitor fuel usage invites waste and theft on a massive scale.

This is more than bad governance, it may be unlawful.

Section 217 of the Constitution demands transparency and fairness in public procurement. Yet the draft contract issued under Section 33 of the MFMA excluded key technical annexures and specifications used to evaluate bidders. That fundamentally undermines transparency.

Furthermore, the tender is currently the subject of an active legal challenge (Case No. 2024-148777). Proceeding while litigation is unresolved exposes the City to judicial review and the risk of the contract being declared invalid.

This is not about defending a specific service provider. It is about safeguarding functionality, continuity, and accountability.

GOOD calls on the City to urgently answer:

• What contingency plans are in place to prevent a lapse in service?
• Have all affected departments been formally alerted?
• And why has the City not considered using Section 116(3) of the MFMA to extend the existing contract and prevent disruption?

The last transition took 18 months. There is no indication that the City is ready to avoid a repeat of that disruption. These systems are the literal vehicles of service delivery. The risks to operations, staff, and public safety are simply too high.

Good Formation: GOOD was formed in December 2018.

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