The City of Ekurhuleni will, on Monday, rolled out a new fleet of Harambee buses and added new routes.

This gesture promises township dwellers expanded public transport options. Prospective Harambee passengers can look forward to travelling to work, schools and places of leisure by hopping into just one bus.

For the City, this new addition to their current fleet of Harambee buses is a step ahead in their Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network (IRPTN).

According to the City’s spokesperson, Themba Gadebe , this will “connect nine towns and 17 townships with an accessible and reliable public transport system.”

The roll-out phase of this new fleet of Harambee buses will start off by servicing Tembisa, a large township situated to the north of Kempton Park on the East Rand, Gauteng,

Additional buses will be deployed on this route and the service will extend to weekends and holidays.

The trip frequency on this route will further increase from 20 minutes to 10 minutes interval during the peak with operating hours being extended to allow for the last bus from ORTIA to Tembisa to depart at 23:00.

While the City of Ekurhuleni is still working on completing Harambee’s infrastructure, it continues to expand Harambee operations.

For Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, the investment in the expansion of Harambee buses indicative of the government’s promotion of public transport use.

Harambee began operations with only eight buses in 2017 on the complementary route from Rabasotho Hall (Tembisa) to Isando. In December 2018, a secondary complementary route from Tembisa Hospital to ORTIA was launched and 10 additional new buses were introduced in January 2019.

Harambee has grown not only in fleet number but it also grew in passenger numbers. Today, over 3 200 daily passengers make Harambee their public transport of choice.