Kudos as Prasa chair does a lot more than just tap the wheels

With so many hands-on traditional railway people still available, it’s regrettable that Chris Barron’s Newsmaker of April 21 should lead with such a headline as “Prasa: what a way to run a railroad”.

I am a retired, hands-on, traditional railway type, with more than 40 years’ experience in the supply and support of railway brake equipment for South African Railways.

There must be many more people, retired like myself, who still have that unused special railway knowledge and skill. Better still, many will be younger than my 86 years, so more able to get up and go.

Interim board chair Khanyisile Kweyama must be applauded for accepting the challenge to fix Prasa.

There is merit in her long-term strategy, but what is surely needed right now is a quick fix.

Graham J Davey, Mossel Bay

Kudos to Prasa’s interim board chair, Khanyisile Kweyama, for saying of transport minister Blade Nzimande’s intention to appoint a task team to find out why turnaround strategies at Prasa have failed: “You may have very nice strategies but if you don’t have the management to implement them, you have a problem.”

She later adds: “These things are so basic in another organisation, but here they were not. People were just loafing around.” She also says the board “[has closed] the ATM”, referring to the looting and corruption at Prasa.

How astute of the interim chair. Her conclusions have relevance for all dysfunctional state-owned enterprises and municipalities.

If Ms Kweyama is the future of state entities, SA will succeed.

Nathan Cheiman, Johannesburg