The Quick Interview | Rea Vaya blames cable theft for glitch, double charges for trips to be reimbursed

Rea Vaya commuters have resorted to the company's social media pages to complain about being double-charged for their trips after the recent introduction of a new card system. However, Rea Vaya spokesperson Benny Makgoga, told Sowetan cable theft was to blame for the issues. He also touched on what the Joburg entity was doing to deal with the issue and whether affected customers will be reimbursed.

Sowetan: Are officials of Rea Vaya aware of the widespread complaints from commuters regarding double charges and other transaction errors?

Makgoga: The city is aware of the complaints and officials are actively managing these concerns from passengers. Mitigation plans are in place to reduce the impact on commuters while ensuring the system functions as designed. 

Sowetan: What technical glitches have been identified so far with the new system?

Makgoga: The system is affected by outages caused by cable theft, which affects the whole city's operations. No major system faults have been detected. Infrastructure challenges, such as fibre disruptions and power outages, have affected syncing [but] power backup and network failover solutions are being implemented to resolve this.

Sowetan: Will commuters who have been overcharged be refunded?

Makgoga: Yes, a fair penalty is automatically reversed by the system within real time or by the customer care centres upon investigation by the back office staff. Passengers are advised to lodge complaints at the Rea Vaya customer care centres located at UJ Sophiatown and Carlton Centre along the [bus] route. 

Sowetan: What was the reason behind the introduction of the new Rea Vaya card system?

Makgoga: In July 2013, the transport department migrated from using paper tickets to the automated fare collection system known commonly as AFC. The city’s transport department is now transitioning to an Account Based Ticketing (ABT) system in phases from the AFC system since October 2024. The new ABT system brings modernised fare collection, enhanced security and real-time mobile app tracking, in line with global transit standards.

Sowetan: How will this benefit commuters?

Makgoga: The system has benefits to the passengers as they will be able to load their travel cards using the Rea Vaya app after implementation, as well as the ability to use bank cards to travel. The passengers are able to use the Rea Vaya app to check card balances and travel history. 

Sowetan: Will the new card system be fully functional and reliable by the end of June?

Makgoga: The system is reliable and user-friendly. Passengers who consistently and correctly tap-in at the beginning of the journey and tap-out at their destination within three hours will not encounter any problem with the system.

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