Around 70 physically disabled people marched to the City of Cape Town on Thursday, accusing government of overlooking the needs of the disabled community of the Western Cape.

Members of the Disabled People of SA (DPSA), in conjunction with the Dial-A-Ride Users Forum, initiated the march after citing continuous problems with the City’s Dial-A-Ride Services.

Users said there is a communication problem as they have repeatedly experienced challenges such as being left stranded or having the service show up despite cancellations or changes in times. There is also a long waiting period for clients to be part of the service.

In a statement yesterday, the City clarified that HG Travelling Services was appointed through a tendering process and has been providing the since December of 2015.

Ahead of the contacts expiration and the advertising of the tender between October and November of 2017, HG Travelling Services took an interdict out at the Western Cape High Court that prevents the City from awarding WCL Trading CC with the contract, until the court case has been finalized.

City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Transport Felicity Purchase was there to accept the memorandum and said HG Travelling Services will continue its operations.

“HG Travelling Services will keep on providing the Dial-a-Ride service on a month-to-month basis pending the outcome of the court.”

The service has 20 operational buses, which transports 350 regular users and 2 270 on an ad hoc basis. Nine people are able to be transported at once, but protesters claimed the buses are inadequate and have accused some drivers of transporting limited people in order to clock in more kilometers.

Dial-A-Ride spokesperson Elroy Lodewyk said the City did not expect such a response.

“They didn’t think we would come out in the numbers like we did because they governed HG travel to only transport between 20-25 people to the march. The city of Cape town is failing the disabled people.”

He added that they continuous shifting of blame by the City and HG travel is an infringement of their right to freedom of movement.

“They (CoCT and HG Travel) don’t want to take accountability for their actions. We are fed up with their lies, we just want a better service. The users are suffering, and they are earning the money, which is so wrong. We are people that are reliant on this transport, we’re fed up with them playing each other up against each other. Please up us to run a smooth and better service for the disabled.”

Dail-A-Ride users also claim that because they get paid per kilometer, drivers purposefully choose to make more trips, with little to no communication being made with those they are transporting.

Lodewyk gave VOC access to an email in which City of Cape Town Stadium Events informed the South African Police Service (SAPS) as well as Public Order Police (POPS) of Thursdays march. Lodewyk said he is disappointed that no officials were deployed to ensure the marchers crossed the busy roads safely.

“The City knew a month in advance about this march. We are disgusted that they didn’t have any structure in place whereby police, metro police or any traffic officers (were) available to assist the disabled people. We had to block the roads with our wheelchairs in order for our members to cross the road. It is unacceptable and (is proof) that the City doesn’t really care about (us).”

Purchase said that at the moment, funding is a problem.

“We are the only city (in the Western Cape) that has a service and it is subsided -90% – by the residents of Cape Town. We’ve applied to provincial government to up their contribution. We’ve applied to national as well to make a contribution but we haven’t had any response.”

She further assured that it is being looked into and committed to responding within seven days.

“I was there to accept the memorandum and has a nice chat with the representatives. I said I’ll get back to them in the next few days. We are really hoping to (improve) the services but we just don’t have more money at this point. As soon as we received response and funding, we would like to expand the service.”

VOC