Prasa’s unused fleet a double-barrelled crime

Every time you hear of someone in the market for a new car you hear at least one other voice of reason saying: “Do you know that you lose the 15% VAT you pay on that car the instant you drive it from the showroom floor?”

As much as we depend on our cars to get by in South Africa, if they are not a classic collectible, they simply do not qualify as an asset. They lose value every day, month and year that goes by and every kilometre they travel.

Their steady depreciation is evident in the pay-off line of a leading insurer, who decreases your payment every month – even if it is by only a few rand.

Last week The Citizen made the startling revelation that 174 vehicles are gathering dust at the Pretoria headquarters of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).

They were bought over a year ago – with taxpayers’ money, of course – and their accumulated value at current market prices is over R57 million. That is just plain shocking. Taking a car’s constant depreciation into account and the fact that it can quickly turn into a major liability for various reasons, the only balancing factor in the whole equation is that they do serve a handy purpose, and one we simply can’t live without most of the time.

They get us to work and back, perform various commercial purposes, help us drop and fetch the kids, take us to the shops, get us to our holiday destinations and offer an alternative

vryplek for young couples uncomfortable in their parents’ houses.

So, in effect, the fact that a fleet of 174 vehicles have been standing still for over a year is a double-barrelled crime.

On the one hand they depreciate something stupid and on the other, they do not get any job done.

If Prasa managed to operate all this time without needing the new vehicles, they could have invested that money – and earned at least R5 million to R6 million rand in interest.

Without even having to consult the interest rates on my bank’s website, they could have put that money underneath the mattress and it would have been worth a whole lot more than the 174 dusty numbers parked in Hatfield.