Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has been criticised for allegedly playing politics and being dishonest to gain votes after it renewed its attempts to take over management of the Cape Town rail system.
Since 2019, the City intended to appoint a multidisciplinary team of specialists to assist the transport directorate with the undertaking, saying the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) was failing to provide an efficient and safe rail network for thousands of commuters.
The National Treasury had, however, said it would amount to wasteful expenditure
Mayor Dan Plato wrote a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa requesting him to urgently intervene in the alleged mismanagement.
“We were advised by the National Treasury that authorising a study (of devolving the rail function) would constitute wasteful expenditure, forcing us to abandon the very critical exercise. The rail service in Cape Town has, under Prasa’s continued management, seen no improvement, and has actually deteriorated further, with a 66% reduction in rail commuters since 2019 confirming the collapse of this critical service.”
Plato called for the reinstatement of the much-hyped Rail Enforcement Unit (REU) that was withdrawn last year after Prasa allegedly declined to renew its portion of funding. It remains unclear if the unit will ever be reinstated.
“Preliminary assessments of the damage done to public rail infrastructure are reported to be an estimated R4 billion. Metrorail did not renew the service,despite that they were only paying for one third of the value of the project.”
Prasa yesterday said it had no comment on the matter.
Good Party secretary-general Brett Herron said the City leadership was unable to get rid of the idea that a national service was an ANC service.
“They approach anything to do with national services with great hostility and a political lens. The mayor should make clear what he means by seeking the devolution of the rail system.
“We were very clear what we meant – it was not the City taking over the operations of the service. There is a rail devolution solution, but the DA and the mayor are confused about transport and I would imagine this is why they are unable to convince the National Treasury to support what they propose,” said Herron.
He added that the REU would make a difference if it were implemented in the way it was envisaged and did not fall prey to the internal dynamics within the City's Safety and Security Directorate.
ANC transport spokesperson Lulama Mvimbi said: “The City’s intentions of talking over or running the rail service are not in good faith. They are just being opportunistic. Yes, the REU was a good intergovernmental initiative that made a difference. But even there, the City always had something to complain about, pinpointing weaknesses instead of bringing solutions.”
United Commuters Voice spokesperson Joao Jardim said the City made the announcement for votes ahead of upcoming elections and they and Prasa were to blame for the “disaster” of the rail services.
“While they play blame games and politics, we as commuters are suffering. They are just toying with the public,” he said.
Cape Times