Cape Town - The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has suffered from many years of mismanagement and deteriorating corporate governance. Today, it is a broken organisation, struggling to provide an efficient commuter and passenger rail service
That was according to Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, while providing an update on the state of operations at Prasa, and a status report on the War Room on Wednesday.
Mbalula said the work of the War Room was supplemented by an
organisational assessment conducted by the Government Technical Advisory
Centre, a government component
of the National Treasury, at their
invitation.
“The War Room focused on service recovery, getting operations back on track at a level that meets, if not exceeds commuter and passenger expectations.”
It was initiated in August in
trying to provide a reliable, safe and
predictable commuter and passenger
service by both Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl.
“Despite this, the downward spiral of Prasa was self-inflicted as a result of poor and indecisive leadership which allowed a culture of impunity to prevail,” he said.
He said while the War Room in its current configuration might not have achieved most of its targets,
serious strides had been made
owards improving operational
performance.
Prasa administrator Bongisizwe Mpondo said the reality they were faced with “is that Prasa is a broken business, and experienced systematic erosion of value which has taken place over a number of years”.
“This, I must say, is at odds with our stated intention to provide value to our commuters,” he said.
They would, however, bring a semblance of order to Prasa.