- Activist group #UniteBehind has issued a demand letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Transport Minister demanding swift action on commuter rail.
- They are calling for Prasa’s board to be fired and for the rail agency to be placed under receivership or corporate bailout until the metros or provinces can take control.
- But recent comments by a minister and ANC policy chief suggest the government does not want to hand over the passenger rail agency, contrary to published policy and legislation.
- For more financial news, go to News24 Business cover.
Commuter activist group #UniteBehind has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula to dissolve the board of the South African Passenger Rail Agency (Prasa), appoint a new board and move passenger trains to the subways. and provinces. But recent comments from another minister suggest the party will resist attempts to shift control of the suburban train.
In a January 24 demand letter addressed to the president and transport minister, #UniteBehind demands that
:
- the transport minister will dissolve the current Prasa board of directors and appoint a new competent board of directors;
- Prasa is placed under judicial management or corporate rescue;
- appoint independent engineers to resolve the Siyangena issue (pending as of 2020); Y
- plans are made with municipalities that have commuter rail infrastructure to ensure the service is delivered as soon as possible, in Cape Town and Gauteng in particular.
#UniteBehind has set a deadline of February 14. If these demands are not met by then, the group intends to go to court.
READ | #UniteBehind Demand Letter
The return of commuter rail transport has been official government policy since the publication of the 1996 National Transport Policy White Paper. This policy has been confirmed in subsequent White Papers, including the most recent in 2022, and in law , with the 2009 National Land Transportation Law saying commuter rail must be located “in the appropriate sphere of government.”
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has been calling on Mbalula to hand over responsibility for commuter rail in the city. The City of Cape Town already completed a business plan in 2018 and is currently developing a feasibility study for the acquisition of the commuter rail. The Gauteng provincial government has also indicated its desire to take over from crisis-plagued Prasa.
But comments by Mmamoloko Kubayi, Minister for Human Settlements and head of the ANC’s economic transformation subcommittee, published in the Sunday World last week, suggest that contrary to policy documents and legislation, the government’s stance is to resist the return. “We can’t give it to the metros. We wouldn’t agree on politics, and we haven’t made these proposals, and this will not change,” Kubayi told the Sunday World.
On Monday, Hill-Lewis issued a statement asking the president to clarify whether Kubayi’s comments were, in fact, government policy.
“We are ready to re-establish a viable rail service in the best interest of commuters, and we are ready to work with the national government at any time to achieve this. The fact is that the railway has collapsed nationally. Prasa now only carries the 3% of the passengers it did a decade ago nationally. Prasa is now bankrupt, with billions lost to corrupt deals, including trains too big for the tracks. Change is long overdue,” Hill-Lewis wrote.
He said his latest correspondence with Mbalula indicated that the minister’s department was developing a “Return Strategy”, to be completed by 2024.
