transport minister statement following the statement by the city of cape town to appoint rail experts to assist with a takeover plan for passenger rail in cape town

transport minister statement following the statement by the city of cape town to appoint rail experts to assist with a takeover plan for passenger rail in cape town

March 27, 2019 • News

The Minister of Transport, Dr Blade Nzimande, rebuts the City of Cape Town appointment of Rail experts to assist with takeover plan for passenger rail in Cape Town.

In a statement released today, 26 March 2019, the City intends to appoint a multi-disciplinary team of rail professionals to assist the Transport Directorate with the high-level business plans for taking over passenger rail in Cape Town.

“The intention by the City of Cape Town is dishonest, opportunistic and absolute political manoeuvring that seeks to undermine the enormous efforts by the ANC government to change the rail landscape of South Africa, which has been characterised by decades of disinvestment by the apartheid regime,” said Minister Nzimande.
In terms of the Legal Succession to the South African Transport Service Act, the Department of Transport is the only legitimate transport authority to ensure that rail commuter services are provided within, to and from the Republic in the public interest.
“For the City of Cape Town to reinvent the wheel and interfere with the mandate of another sphere of government will not be able to assist rail commuters to have an improved, accessible, reliable and cost-effective public transport,” empasised Minister Nzimande.
In dealing with the legacy of disinvestment in rail, the ANC government has invested billions in resuscitating this important mass based mode of public transportation which is used by the majority of South Africans, blacks in particular.

“Our immediate and urgent task is to stabilize and provide a predictable Metrorail service within current capacity, measured by increased ridership, customer satisfaction and efficiency”, said Minister Nzimande.

The ANC government progressively restored operational stability in Western Cape Metrorail.
With the Cape Town Corridor requiring about 110 full train sets, in the 2019/2020 financial, we have commenced to operate 88 fully configured trains.
PRASA is also undertaking extensive infrastructure work focusing on, amongst others, fixing of perways and signaling.

As Minister of Transport, I have appointed stakeholder relations managers from my office based here in Cape Town, Gauteng, eThekwini, and East London (where Metrorail has operations) to act as a direct link between my office and various stakeholders, including commuter and community organisations.
Again, in the Western Cape, I have established the Metrorail Security Enforcement Team working together with the very same municipality and the provincial government.

“Critical as well is for us to ensure that we provide our demand driven services according to customer travel needs, coupled with predictability and reliable information dissemination,” emphasised Minister Nzimande.
Minister Nzimande is currently in the process of meeting the Board and Labour Unions to find common solutions to the operational challenges facing PRASA.
These engagements will culminate in the Minister making announcements on the interventions from government to stabilise PRASA.

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