By 1806 a postal service had been established througout the colony.Tavelers could hitch a ride with the weekly wagon between Cape Town and Stellenbosch

PC Trench produced a series of paintings depicting Cape Town's transport in the mid-1800's Here the Victorian coach, which operated between Wynberg and Cape Town, speeds briskly downhill

The first horse-drawn tram at the Cape in the service of Cape Town and Green Point
Tramway Company had as its passengers on its inaugural run. Left to righ (back row): GM Atchison (Secretary of the Post Office). Hon PE Roubaix (Chairman), MM van
Reenen, GH de Jongh (Director), Catain van der Venn, Rev (unknown), P Penketh
(City Engineer), John Noble(Editor Adr. & Mail) and Stenhouse.
(Front Row. GW Murray (Editor Argus), Postmaster General, J.Lotz (Editor Zuid
Afrikaan, RM Ross, RH Ardene, J Leibrandt, H Solomon (Secretary) and Master Solomon. In foreground: J Bissel (Engineer).

The CT&GPTC had two cars, Each was designed very
specifically and had the capacity for 20 seated and 12 standing
passengers. Doors on each end, stairs to the seats on the
roof and raised ceiling. Although not luxurious, the fleet
provided dust-free ventilation and headroom for the top-hats
worn by gentlemen of the day. It was most definitely an improvement on the omnibus

The Cape Town and Green Point tramway head
office on the corner of Long Street and what is
now Hout Street, established 1862.

Cape Town and the suburbs showing tramlines built by the Green
Point Company and the City Tramways Company. Based on an
Admirality chart about 1878.

Workers rebuilding tramway in Upper Long street.

Notice Posted for the City Tramways Company Limited Annual General Meeting to held at the Mutual Hall on 7 August 1884

In the early days of transport, the penny farthings are predecessors of bicycles. These iron-horses were used for individual transport reserved for the wealthy.

South Africa's first electric tram service is introduced - 4 years earlier than London's first electric tram in 1901. Members of Parliament and Town Counsellors partake in the first momentous demostration trip rom Toll Gate to Mowbray. WB Rommel is at the controls of the first care.

The centre of Cape Town was ablaze with flags and the crowds milled on 6 August 1896 when the first tram was set in motion along the route, running between Adderley Street and Mowbray Hill, for the official opening.

A staff group at Sea Point with one of the last horse-drawn trams

Port Elizabeth's first electric tramway was ceremoniously opened on 16 June 1897

On the same day the first electric tram was launched, Port Elizaberth's last horse-drawn bowed out of the city's transport system.

A postcard depicting trams operating in Sea Point - late 1890s

No 35 trams of the early electric rail-tram with the open to deck. Commercial advertising on tram exteriors was a long established practice by now.

Camps Bay Tramway Company's power station and tram shed

A Camps Bay Tram in Adderley Street. (new line) Photograph: HiltonT@Fickr

Electric tram heading up Victoria Road in Camps Bay.

A new, Larger boiler house was built at the toll power station in 1902. The original brick smokestack was replaced by a taller of iron.

Port Elizaberth's first electric tramway was ceremoniously opened on 16 June 1897.

The early buses that were tried on the Kommetjie-Muzenberg bus circa 1904.

Taken in circa 1910 in Vredehoek Cape Town.

Motor bus garage, Cape Town, in construction- enclosed by Barkey's letter No.528 1/11/1913

Wynberg to Hout Bay bus taken in Hout Bay in circa 1918

Details unkown

Bus to Wynberg leaving Beach Hotel, Hout Bay taken time in 1920.

empty

Similarly in Port Elizaberth, motor buses were operational. Four of the Coy's motorbuses in the workshop.

late 1920's

Son of the founder of Golden Arrow Bus Services, Sher and Issy drove and maintained the buses themselves in the early years.

The original bus (right) was augmented by a second bus, with Issy Paslovsky (second from the right).

The selling space for commercial advertising on trams and exteriors was a long established practice - from before 1850. For many decades, urban buses made sure they retained their standard house liveries.

The selling space for commercial advertising on trams and exteriors was a long established practice - from before 1850. For many decades, urban buses made sure they retained their standard house liveries.

Empty

Trackless trams run to kloof nek, Oranjezicht, Gardens and Hanover Street. It is said that people poured out of buildings to touch the vehicle as it passed. The Cape Electric Tramways Company Limited purchase Northern Transport Company.

Fleet no 21 of the original Golden Arrow Bus Services company in the "orange-of-cream" livery. Issy Pasvolsky posing with the bus. It will eventually be scrapped in 1953, when both the fleet number and registration were transferred to a new Diamler double-decker.

The selling space for commercial advertising on trams and exteriors was a long established practice - from before 1850. For many decades, urban buses made sure they retained their standard house liveries.

Flower sellers made a wreath in honour of the trip this last electric rail-tram will take from Adderley Street to Sea Point. Tramwaymen placed the wreath - "with Deeper Sympathy"

In the yard at Toll Gate Depot

A map was erected in Adderley Street to familiarise people with the war front during the Second World War. Photograph: HiltonT@Flickr

The Cape Town Tramway Company's active participation in the call to arms for women during the Second World War.

To ensure the bus services continue during the war years and due to absence of spare parts, repairs and maintenance were effected. As a result buses are built and maintained with ingenious methods that would not have been considered in normal times

The previous years brought many problems for Golden Arrow, but after much trail and error a complete bus was produced locally.

After WW II ended in Septermber 1945, import of buses again became possible and here a Golden Arrow bus is offloaded at the Cape Town docks

Golden Arrow bus is offloaded at the Cape Town docks

The years that followed after the war were slow and challenging. Those in the group's workshops were often required to work around the dock to get operations back on track. The Cape Electric Tramways Company Limited began expanding into the country areas around Cape Town, first buying out Boland Transport Limited, which operated in Stellenbosch.

The Daimlers gave yeoman service, notably during the difficult yeara of WW II. Some of the vehicles dating from 1930s were still running by 1960s. After the war, a handful of Daimler CWG6 and more than 60 CVG6 vehicles were placed in service in Cape Town. A few were imported, complete with Weymanns bodies, but the next batch was assembled from CDK parts at City Tramways' Tollgate workshops. The rest were put together and bodied at the new Bus Bodieas plant in PE.

In 1952, a large new depot was built for City Tramways in Diep River, Cape Town, accommodating 120 buses.

During a lunchtime anti-apartheid demonstration in Darling Street, people lined the street infront of the General Post Office to protest petty apartheid policies in post offices in the Cape Peninsula. The Cape Times newspaper described the approximately 1,000 demonstrators as communists. Photograph: Cape Times Collection

In 1931 Randall joined City Tramways as a labourer, constructing a double tram carriageway between Salt River Road and Durham Avenue. When this job was completed, he started in stores and then went to the carpenter's shop, where he was put in charge of the wood store.

He named his youngest son Eben, after Ebenezer Road depot.

He went on to be the first coloured conductor during apartheid for the Nyanga Passenger Transport Company Limited

Left to right (front): Dr AE Flax, I Pasvolsky (deputy Chairman and Managing Director), CS Corder (Chairman), MJ Pasvolsky, LJ Botha. (Back): LM Rood, H Mednifcoff, RA Gregory (Secretary), GW Robb (General Manager, The City Tramways Company Limited), JN Hensilwood, AC Fenwick, EE Grubb.

In 1956 the Cape Electric Tramways Company purchased Simonstown Bus Services (Pty) Limited into which was later merged a bus service running between Fish Hoek Station, Kommetjie and Noordhoek. The depot evolved in the late 1940s from an old naval stores building

One of the 10 red double-decker London buses- complete with their original English advertisements - caused a sensation whenever they ran

City Tramways fleet no 593 with Bus Bodies 72-seat, forward entrance body in March 1964. The first batch of these vehicles were ordered to replace the trackless trams. Highly successful and reliable, an economical runner in respect of fuel usage, tyre wear etc, the PD3/5 became the group's standard double-decker until Leyland's discontinued the model later in the decade.

A former London Transport (fleet RTL 694) Leyland 7RT diesel with a 56-seater Metropolitan-cammell Carriage& Wagon Co Ltd body, acquired by City Tramways (fleet no 755) in October 1965 and withdrawn in 1975

Highly successful and reliable, an economical runner in respect of fuel usage, tyre wear etc, the PD3/5 became the group's standard double-decker until Leyland discontinued the model later in the decade.

Norman James Wright, retired at the age of 80 from City Tramways after 60 years and 6 months of service.Wright spent the first half of his career as a conductor and then a driver, and in the second half as an inspector and a regulator.
He had an accident-free record for the entire duration of his career and remembered the company as one big family.
(Tollgate February 1979 Vol 7, No 2)

In experimental livery at the group's Saldanha subsidiary.

This vehicle started life as a Leyland ERT2/1 underfloor-engine single-decker, delivered by Bus Bodies in February 1968 with 64-seat body to Border Passenger Transport. It was transferred to Port Elizabeth Passenger Transport in January 1970 with 61 seats. In August 1971 it became a 57-seater at City Tramways, Cape Town. Completely rebuilt in Cape Town as a 59-seater in 1976, the underfloor engine mounted on its side was rotated through 45 degrees into an upright position. This made for a trigger floor. Although 80 similar vehicle were reconstructed in this way during the 70s. The red seen here was soon replaced with brown-and-cream.

"The last double-decker to enter the fleet - fleet nos 2700-2727-
were supplied by Busaf in PE between 1987-1990.

They were Leyland ""Victory"" (Guy-derivative Mk II) models,
constructed on modified Leyland Victory chassis taken from the
withdrawn single-deck buses, some in Cape Town and some in
PE. Each seated 100 passengers but they were not the first
100-seater in the world as Busaf had supplied 4 100 seaters to
a Hong Kong operator more than a decade ago."

"In 1978, a forward-engine ""Jubilant"" chassis was imported by City Tramways from Dennis Brothers at Guildford, UK, for test purposes. Bodied at Epping in 1979, initially it had seats upstairs only but this was changed to 47 seats up and 25 down. The vehicle will go on to be withdrawn from service in August 1993 and scrapped in April 1996."

The Golden Arrow drivers who voluntarily donate their time,
when off duty to drive the Grassroots Adventure Buses

"This was the first of the so-called ""standee buses"" at City Tramways, a;; built at the Epping central workshop in 1980/81 - fleet nos 1301-1432. ""Perimeter"" (back-to the windows) seating was fitted for 41 passengers, which made room for a max number of standees and the vehicle were licensed to carry 55 standing. The rear doorway (later removed) was fitted with one-way turnstile to prevent entry. More than a 100 further standee buses were built in 1982 and 1983 - fleet nos 1433-1552."

Early in 1983, as a community project for Shawco (UCT student health and welfare organisation) City Tramways engineering staff converted a withdrawn Leyland OPS4/5 into a mobile clinic. The front part of the sallon was the waiting room. The rear half featured 3 examination chairs, a changing cubicle, shelfs for equipment and a wash basin.

The Leyland OPS4/5 was discontinued in the late 1969s.

Left to right (seated): Dr GWG Browne, Dr MD Marais (Chairman), EE Grubb, JC Karney, L Flax, Left to right (standing): IA Bocock(Secretary), CA Stride, AB Eksteen, J Barnard (Managing Director), AJ Boughey, NS Cronje and N Blackshaw (Financial Director).

Left to right (seated): Barry Gie (Regional Director: Western Cape), Johann Barnard, Hennie Diedericks (Executives Chairman), Nic Cronje (manging Director) and Niel Blackshaw. Standing: Francois Potgieter (executive Director), Hannes Grebe (Reginal Director: Eastern Cape), Stephanus Pretorius (Regional Director: Transvaal), Murray Louw, Mark Wilkin (Financial director), Dennis Biccard (Secretary) and Mike Forder (Regional Director: Natal).

Members of the Tramway Malay Choir with trophies they won in the annual choir competition.

The Tramways singkoor (Choir) started in 1975 but came to an end 6 years later due to lack of funds. On 22 january 1979 the choirs sang Die Klipkaartjie Leidjie at the annual SA Choral Society Festival. The choir caught the imagination of the audience responded by producing their own clip cards and waving them about.

Some enthusiastic members re-launched the choir in 1988 and became a popular feature at functions. In January 1990 the choir participated in the annual choir competition held at the Three Arts Theatre in Diep River where they took first place for best combined chorus and placed second in the Netherlands song category. They were also placed second in both solo and comic song categories, and third in the best dressed category. They continued over the years, but due to lack of funds, the ceased performing in 2009/

Nelson Mandela with Winnie Mandela as he is released from Victor Verster Prison, walking hand in hand with clenched fists. It had been a long walk to freedom. The event was broadcasted live all over the world.

Photograph: Graeme Williams

Following general mass action in the townships, minibus taxi operators to incite violence against bus drivers and passengers. The company was forced to relocate the Nyanga bus terminus. The violence continued sporadically and by December 1992 3 bus drivers had been tragecally killed in taxi related violence.

A pattern soon began to emerge, where political action would be exploited by minibus operators to incite violence against buses and the company kept the buses out of black areas. Violence in these areas between July and August 1993 claimed a total of 1189 lives, which included another 3 bus drivers.

In September 1993, open warfare erupts against Cape Town buses, the apparent reason being that the minibus-taxi wanted the buses out of the townships so that they can takover the passengers.

A spate of violent attacks forced the withdrawal of buses from Khayelitsha for many months- a foretaste of similar troubles that were to recur several times in the following years.

Photograph:www.venyve.com

April 1994 heralded a new political dispension with the holding of the country's first truly democratic elections and government passing from NP control to a new order under the ANC. Adjustments in labour legislation and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) were to alter the way things were done. The new government's thoughts on transpot appeared after 2 years in the form of white paper, but there were to be much rethinking and changes in direction, which did not make matters easy for bus operators.

The team that engineered the management buyout. Left to right(front) Barry Gie (Executive Director), Nic Cronje (CEO) and Mark Wilkin (Financial Director), (Back) Frans Mayoss (GM: Operations) and Roger Overton (Company Engineer).

HRH Anne The Princess Royal presented Nic Cronje with an award, in recognation of transportation by Golden Arrow Bus Services during the CITSA Awards evening held at the Alberton Civic Centre on 23 November 1994

(Left to right) Back: Duncan Crowie, Moegamat Soeker, Bob Krause, Nokwanda Majola and Esau Majokweni. Front: Matilda Vantura, Adriaan Eksteen, Marlene le Roux and Father Paks Mdunyelwa.

Plet Meyer and Golden Arrow Chairman, Nic Cronje at the AAD Bus Launch held at Kevin Grove, Newlands on 5 June 1998

The Golden Arrow management team keep watch as staff members embark on Industrial action flowing a deadlock in wage negotiations.

On 15 April 1999, public transport in Cape Town was thrown into disarray when employees of Golden Arrow and other bus operators embarked on a national strike. Regular bus users had to find other ways of getting to work, mostly at increased cost. Traffic congestion worsened and trains were overcrowded. By the time negotiations ended and employees returned to work on 3 May 1999, a trail of destruction was left in the wake of the strikes. Besides financial loss the general public had been greatly inconvenienced. Immediate effects of the strike included the postponement of a R30 million cintract of 38 new buses and the acquisition of a R10 million electronic ticketing project.

After Jason retired from the GA board of directors,Yaasien (Abe) Abrahams became the first bus driver to be elected to fill the vacany as the company's staff representative on the board. At the time he was also the chairmain of SATAWU Western Cape, national chairman of passenger section within SATAWO and served on the national provident fund for SATAWU.

Abrahams displayed his leadership skills during taxi violence in 2000 when he and his fellow bus drivers faced danger daily, he said his only concern was the interests of workers.

Quick thinking by Ivor Bastiaan, saved the life of a critically-ill elderly passenger. Turning into queen's Park Road in Woodstock, a passenger drew his attention. Ivor stopped the bus, climbed out of the cab and got into the bus to take a closer look. It did not take long to realise that the gentleman's heart had stopped. After he quickly consulted the other passengers on the bus he rushed the bus to Groote Schuur with the headlights blazing and his hand on the horn.

At Groote Schuur, Bastiaan parked the bus and called over nearby doctors to help. After emergency treatment in the bus, George Wulff was admitted to hospital.Ivor only found out afterwards that George was a former driver with City Tramways. Mr Wulff recovered remarkably fast.

Groups of taxi owners had formed into associations, but competition for routes became keener leading to skirmishes between rival associations. Each laid claims to routes and territories. *Taxi wars* became common and innocent passengers were caught in the crossfire.

Desperate authorities spent long hours negotiating in bid to broker peace. Cease-fire would be declared, lasting until the war broke out again a month or two later. Thousands of commuters were often left stranded as Golden Arrow buses, dirvers and passengers became targets of a 'hitman' hired by misguided elements in the minibus taxi industry. Many passengers walked long distances before bing able to utilise bus serveices in N2 outside townships.

With the lack of effective policing the taxi violence in troubled areas, GABS hired a private security firm to protect its drivers and passengers. The attacks on buses continued, however, but seemingly aimed at passengers rather than the drivers.

In 2000 the company acquired 29 new MAN Explorer 66 seater. 3 years later a further 40 were added, despite the lack of any guarantee that work would eventuate for a new vehicles bought in at considerate cost.

In a move to empower historically disadvantaged bus operators and provide them with access to the mainstream passenger transport industry, Sibanye Bus Services (Pty) Ltd was formed in 2001 to operate between Cape Town and Atlantis (46kw) under a subcontracting agreement with Golden Arrow.

Sibanye represented the coming together of 3 partners who, despite diverse backgrounds, share the same vision: to provide safe, accessible, efficient and affordable public transport to the people of Western CApe in general and Cape Metropolitan area in particular.

The 3 partners are: The Western Cape Bus Operatorss Transport Co-operative Limited trading as Siyakhula Bus Services, Golden Arrow Bus Services (pty) Ltd, and Abahlobo Bus Services (Pty) Ltd.

"In 1999, Gloria Mabandla served tea and was responsible for general daily upkeep of the offices in Epping. Her attitude to help wherever she could and her knowledge of the company soon boosted her confidence and birthed her aspirations to become a receptionist. This dream became a reality in 2002, when the learning centre needed a receptionist that could speak and communicate in 3 official languages - Gloria successfully applied for the position.

I was so happy in my new job, because not only was I linked to the outside workd, but I enjoyed dealing with the people and assisting prospective employees"". Today she is the face of the Learning Centre."""

"Virginia Mohamed's small stature is deceptive, because as soon as she launched herself into the driver's seat behind the wheel of her bus she became a dynamo - a woman who loves to take control of the heavy-duty vehicle and hold her own in the job dominated by men.

I feel that female drivers are more in tune with their passengers and more in control of their tempers: she said in an interview with the company's in-house publication, Gazette in 2004, ""The training I recieved at the Golden Arrow Learning Centre was excellent and, as a driver all that is required is for me to apply it while I am driving""."

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool (left) congratulating Robert Prince (Manager, Learning Centre), while Nic Cronje (Chairman) looks on.

"In a pioneering move in its history, in 2005 Golden Arrow appointed Dorothy Itumeleng, a qualified diesel mechanic in what is considred a strickly male domian.

After matriculating in 1998, her main objective was to become an engineer. However she changed her mind when she saw a woman fixing an engine of a car; she shared in an interview shortly after her appointment.

Dorothy completed her NTC1, NTC2 and NTC3 at Bloemfontein College, before moving to Hillside College to complete her NTC4 and NTC5. while studying her NTC6 she was offered an apprenticeship at Kumba Resources, an iron ore mine in Kuruman, NC. After 3 years at the mine she qualified as a diesel mechanic.

Her motto in life is to keep studying to empower herself and says, empathetically, I am not an affirmative action appointee. I am here because I am qualified! Women should not be afraid to enter this field because there are lots of opportunities here - it's not always easy, you have to be determined and patient, you should have a strong will because there are times when you are faced with obstacles or tests."""