Johannesburg, South Africa — The Gauteng provincial government is introducing a digital-first operating-licence system designed to modernise the public-transport sector and eliminate longstanding backlogs and inefficiencies.
According to Kedibone Diale‑Tlabela, the MEC for Roads and Transport, the new technology-driven process will “streamline applications, strengthen data integrity, and improve service delivery for all.” The initiative is part of the work of the Gauteng Public Transport Crisis Committee, which was established in January 2025 to tackle the operating-licence backlog across the province’s transport modes.
Between September and the present day, the department issued 354 operating licences, approved 5 049 applications and referred 2 247 cases for adjudication — a sign of both the scale of demand and the effort to reduce back-logs. A key part of the reform is a comprehensive clean-up and verification of the public-transport database: duplicate, fraudulent or outdated entries will be removed, enabling more accurate recording of operators, routes and licences.
Once fully implemented, the licence, route and operator information will be digitised, improving transparency and placing high-risk routes under stronger enforcement. The reform will cover all transport modes including the minibus-taxi sector, e-hailing services, school-transport vehicles and buses.
Diale-Tlabela also noted that provincial regulations are being developed to support recently amended national transport laws and new e-hailing regulations promulgated in September 2025.
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