Golden Arrow Bus Services (GABS) is out on tender for another 40 to 60 electric buses to join its fleet after April next year, says company engineer Gideon Neethling.

Speaking at the Africa E-Mobility Week 2026 held in Stellenbosch at the end of September, he said the new buses would add to the 120 BYD electric buses already in the Golden Arrow fleet.

The current electric fleet is expected to collectively travel roughly six-million kilometres this calendar year.

Neethling said that while the public transport company’s experience with its newly acquired electric buses had been positive, the same was not true for its experience with funding institutions and government.

“We are becoming quite critical, because everybody talks about frameworks, and we use all these buzzwords, but there is very little action. It’s just hot air.

“We must be so careful of trying to do everything but end up doing nothing. Plan, yes, but be careful to plan and plan and plan and do nothing.”

Neethling added that there was “so much talk about support” for green projects from development finance institutions, but that the reality was starkly different.

“There is no support, just talk. All the development banks talk about financing, but when you look them in the eye and ask: ‘What is your interest rate?’ they say: ‘It depends.’ So we go to the commercial banks in South Africa.

“We believe that if you want to use the phrase ‘green finance’, you must advertise your discount. Otherwise it’s not green finance; it’s finance.”

Neethling also noted that the City of Cape Town’s much-vaunted ‘consumer-friendly’ 7% electricity tariff hike was not a lie, but also not entirely the truth – “it’s applicable to peak rates, when we use close to zero electricity”.

“At standard rates, when we use close to 40% of our electricity, the increase is more than 9%.

“In the off-peak rates, when we use the rest of our electricity? A 25% rand-per-kilowatt-hour increase was applicable in our latest financial year. They’ll put us out of business soon.”

“We work well with the City of Cape Town … but yes, they make you pay for a bigger cable into your depot – we paid just short of R12-million. We increase their turnover from us by 1 000%, and then they give you these increases?”

Neethling added that government was currently punishing consumers and businesses moving to electric vehicles, rather than providing incentives to go green.

“There are only penalties and no rewards. We are asking for a more balanced approach.”