MINISTER MUST STEP UP, OR STEP ASIDE

SOUTH Africa’s economic growth is dependent on people getting to work on time and the workforce in the country’s key economic hubs – Joburg and Cape Town – largely rely on an efficient transport system to get them there.

Trains are the main means of public transport. Countless workers depend on Metrorail. Therefore, the dysfunctional train system, under attack by callous vandals, not only prevents people from getting to work, it jeopardises the growth of our already-stunted economy.

In the face of these attacks, there appears a chronic lack of political will to combat them.

These attacks are anything but random acts of vandalism, they are acts of terror.

When communities expressed how fed up they were with crime, Police Minister Bheki Cele engaged with them.

Where is Transport Minister Blade Nzimande in Prasa and Metrorail’s ongoing turmoil?

During student protests at the gates of Parliament, Nzimande, then-minister of higher education and training, failed to address the crisis. Now, as transport minister, he again fails to show any form of political gumption in tackling a real crisis. Forty trains have been destroyed since 2015. Metrorail in the Cape is hobbling along.

Step up, Minister Nzimande, or step aside.