Mbalula lambastes Prasa management

Cape Town’s central railway line will be functional by December, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has promised.

During an oversight visit on Friday, Mbalula said in July there would be a limited service from Cape Town to Langa, Pinelands and Bonteheuwel.

He said the line that connects at Bonteheuwel to Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Philippi and Mitchells Plain would open in December.

The central line, which is the busiest, serving the poorest communities, including Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Nyanga and Bonteheuwel, has been suspended, except for a brief interval, since 2018. Since then, families have set up informal settlements on the track in Langa, Philippi and Khayelitsha.

Mbalula sharply rebuked management of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) for problems with the line. “Our biggest problem here is not only people who built shacks on the railway tracks, our biggest problem here is management negligence.

“What are you running here, because you are employed to run trains?” he said to Prasa acting group CEO David Mphelo, regional manager Kaparo Molefi, regional engineering manager Raymond Maseko and engineer Emily Malatji.

”There is management negligence here and as the CEO you need to charge people here about their responsibilities. What is the head of security in the management of Prasa in Cape Town saying when you meet, what do your records of minutes say? Don’t you think that there is a problem here? What are you managing?

“We can no longer allow people to earn big salaries and all that they know is to give inadequate answers and yet they are managers. You can’t be a manager managing a railway system and you don’t have a plan. Every day you come to work, what do you say you are doing when everything is just falling apart?”

During the visit, Mbalula was shown overhead track installations between Pinelands and Langa train stations; temporary fencing to secure the railway reserve from Langa informal settlement; work at Bonteheuwel; and an informal settlement at Nonkqubela train station in Khayelitsha.

The visit ended with a meeting at the Brown’s Farm Swimming Pool in Philippi. Some residents expressed scepticism the line would be reopened in December.

Mphelo said it would cost about R2.1 billion to fully repair the central line, of which R1.9 billion had already been spent.

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