The GOOD Party condemns the City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility Directorate for refusing to place the Dial-a-Ride crisis on the agenda of tomorrow’s Portfolio Committee on Urban Mobility.
Instead of urgently addressing the service cuts already affecting hundreds of residents with severe mobility impairments, the committee has scheduled the matter for discussion only in October, a full month after the City’s own 8 September suspension and restriction of the service takes effect.
Not long ago, hundreds of disabled residents took to the streets and protested outside the Civic Centre, demanding that the City protect their right to safe, reliable transport. Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Mikhail Manuel could have placed this matter on the agenda then. Instead, he and MMC for Urban Mobility have completely closed the space for urgent discussion and debate.
The urgency of this matter could not be clearer. For the Urban Mobility Directorate to ignore these calls and postpone the discussion until after the damage is done shows just how unserious they are about the needs and rights of Cape Town’s disabled community.
By avoiding debate now, the City is making sure that by the time the committee talks about Dial-a-Ride, the service will already be gone for many, and the residents who depend on it will be left stranded, isolated, and at risk. They would be unable to access community health facilities, unable to go grocery shopping or collect their Sassa grants. All because of a political decision by MMC Roberto Quintas.
Disabled residents have been clear in their demands: they need answers, they need accountability, and they need their service back. Delaying this conversation until October is a deliberate choice to abandon them.
The City must stop running from this issue and face the people it is failing.
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