Prasa summoned to Parliament over train delays

Signalling equipment, rolling stock, concrete walls among plans

PASSENGER Rail Agency of South Africa’s (Prasa) interim board members will be summonsed to come and account for the failing state of train services in the country.

A subpoena will be issued after the board members failed to pitch for a meeting with Parliament’s portfolio committee on transport.

The committee said the failure to account to Parliament showed a complete disregard of board members’ obligation to its fiduciary duties.

Prasa group chief executive Cromet Molepo said he communicated with the company secretary who told him although board members were tracked down, they were found to be in different places and could not make it.

The committee was scheduled to meet with Prasa, the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) and civil society group #UniteBehind to discuss rail operations in South Africa. The problems that have beset the urban rail network include train delays and cancellations which have affected the local economy. The RSR, #UniteBehind and members of the Prasa executive were the only parties in attendance.

Transport committee member Mtikeni Sibande said: “The sooner the permanent board is appointed the better. All of them are acting and it’s not good, this acting and interim thing is not working and this is wasteful expenditure on all of us.”

Acting transport committee chairperson, Leonard Ramatlakane, concurred.

“The Prasa board are not keeping to the requirements. The committee got to the conclusion of a subpoena and this is embarrassing, why did we have to get to this stage?” Ramatlakane asked.

“Everybody who accepted the responsibility of being on a board needs to carry out their responsibilities and that hasn’t happened.”

He said the postponement also constituted fruitless expenditure with those who were present having spent taxpayers’ money to get to Cape Town.

METRORAIL is still in the dark as to when its busy central line on the Cape Flats will reopen as it is “still finalising plans”. Richard Walker, regional manager of Metrorail, said they were still busy with a safety plan that includes a concrete wall along stations.

He spoke to the Cape Argus on the sidelines of a parliamentary briefing where they were to discuss plans to improve the rail service across the country.

“We are still busy finalising our safety plan that we have agreed to with our stakeholders. We are in the final stages of our plan so that we can open the line to all our commuters in the Cape Flats area. I can’t give a date at this stage when the line will be open,” he said.

Walker also said they had a comprehensive plan to fix the infrastructure and signalling equipment of the ailing system.

“We are busy with a modernisation plan to address train delays and problems with our signalling equipment. Our plan will tackle our challenges in respect of rolling stock and infrastructure. We are also busy with a plan to replace rotten wooden sleepers for better safety,” he said.

Despite all their plans, Walker said the constant vandalism of their railways had placed massive pressure on their service.

“We have criminals dressed in reflective bibs pretending to be engineers who steal our cables. We find these cables at scrap yards. One of our own technical staff was involved with criminal activities on the rail system and that person has been arrested.

“Many other criminals were also arrested for their involvement in the stealing of cables,” he said.

MPs in the portfolio committee on transport were fuming yesterday and ordered interim board members of SA’s Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to appear before it at 2pm after they failed to arrive for a meeting at 9.30am

The interim board was expected to brief Parliament’s portfolio committee on transport on the country’s failing commuter rail services which have led to entire lines being affected, with tens of thousands of people being left stranded or late for work on a daily basis.

The chairperson of the committee, Dikeledi Magadzi, said they were disgusted by Prasa’s conduct, as it was not the first time they had behaved in this manner.

“This meeting with Prasa should have happened last week already, but the committee has had to reschedule because Prasa did not honour the meeting,” Magadzi said.

“The service Prasa is rendering is meant to benefit the poor, and the cornerstone of that starts with being accountable to Parliament which apportions funding to the entities and Departments,” she said.

The acting CEO for Prasa, Cromet Molepo, told the committee there was confusion with its invitation that reached Prasa only yesterday. He did not elaborate.

Magadzi said even if there was confusion with the invitation, it was Prasa’s responsibility to find out what the committee wanted.

Zachie Achmat, secretary of activist group #UniteBehind, said they were applying pressure on government to restore the rail service, which was failing because of corruption.

CRIMINALS DRESSED IN REFLECTIVE BIBS PRETENDING TO BE ENGINEERS STEAL OUR CABLES