With thousands of people commuting daily between Johannesburg and Pretoria, Gauteng has the highest percentage of people who spend more than 30 minutes to get to work each day, and ultimately pay some of the highest transport costs.
TimesLIVE caught up with three commuters who use different modes of transport to find out how much it costs them per day.
Michelle May, 22, who uses the Gautrain to commute from Pretoria to Johannesburg and back each day, incurs the highest costs.
“I spend about R180 a day and R900 per week on average”, she said, “but I already know I am going to be paying more once everything goes up.”
Though it costs her a lot, she prefers the convenience the train offers.
As a person who has travelled both by car and the Gautrain, Yanga Macingwane, 36, had to make the decision to move to Pretoria to cut costs.
“I had to take the Gautrain, but later I had to move to Pretoria because it became too expensive”, she said. “The problem with driving is the traffic, which is why I always preferred the convenience the Gautrain offers.”
Shonisani Tshikalange, 23, commutes via several minibus taxis each day. As a person who is used to travelling the distance, she prefers this method of travel.
“I choose to travel by taxi because it costs me less than R100 — it is the cheapest way to travel this distance.”
With the upcoming expected tax increases, one can expect transport costs to also go up.
In a City press article, Kyle Mandy, the head of tax at PwC, said inflation increases relating to fuel prices will be incurred by taxpayers among the usual list of items that incur tax increases.
The budget speech is scheduled for Wednesday 2pm.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
