City attempted to waste ratepayers money on railway study – Treasury
THE City of Cape Town had intended to take up a study that would have wasted ratepayers money in hopes of running the Cape Town rail network.
This is according to the National Treasury after the City issued a statement on Sunday bashing the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) over mismanagement of the rail system and Treasury for not authorising the “very critical” study.
“It should be noted that, in terms of the National Land Transport Act of 2009, until such time that the function of commuter rail is devolved from national government to any other sphere of government, all transport plans that contemplate rail must be submitted to the Minister of Transport (Fikile Mbalula) for approval of the commuter rail component of such plans,” the Treasury said.
They further stated that Mbalula had not approved the city's proposal nor was any in-principle decision made that the rail would be devolved to it.
“The municipality would first need to obtain such a decision, in writing. Therefore, in the absence of such a decision, the municipality intended to undertake a feasibility study, at major cost to the ratepayers, into the devolution and assignment of the urban rail function to the municipality.
“The National Treasury raised concerns that spending money on a feasibility study before a decision was taken by the Minister of Transport to devolve the function could result in fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The definition of fruitless and wasteful expenditure is expenditure made in vain and would have been avoided had reasonable care been exercised.”
Since 2019, the City intended to appoint a multidisciplinary team of specialists to assist the transport directorate with the undertaking.
Mayor Dan Plato this week said he would write to President Cyril Ramaphosa requesting an urgent intervention.
Plato said he had petitioned Mbalula earlier this year to grant permissions to relaunch the study but have yet to receive a response, “while the rail system continues to collapse under Prasa's management”.
“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 said.
The transport ministry did not respond to questions by deadline.
Meanwhile, Prasa also hit back at the City, after they were blamed for more families erecting shacks between train railways in Langa and other communities.
Prasa's chairperson Leonard Ramatlakane said: “The City was requested to provide land for those squatting on the rail at Langa. But today has not done anything. Clearly the City lacks a political will, but is ready to play political games with the plight of the poor and destitute. Prasa will continue to work constructively with stakeholders including the City.”