The City of Cape Town’s plans to fix the passenger rail system in the Mother City appears to have gone off the rails, after the ANC’s policy head for Economic Transformation Mmamoloko Kubayi reportedly stated this past weekend that devolving rail functions to the City is off the table for the governing party.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has now called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to confirm whether the national government intends scrapping plans to devolve the running of passenger rail to well-run local authorities.
Kubayi reportedly stated that she would ‘not advise any department to dissolve power or function to the metros’.
Kubayi is quoted by Sunday World on views about rail devolution:
‘You can’t do that with strategic infrastructure and an important economic activity. Rail is one of the backbones of movement of goods and people. We can’t give it to metros.’
Hill-Lewis says Minister Kubayi’s comments do not seem to take any account of the fact that the service has collapsed under national management.
He says the comments are also in direct contradiction with the national White Paper on Rail Policy:
”Approved by the national Cabinet in May 2022, the policy position taken in the paper confirms that passenger rail will be devolved to capable local governments. The basis for this policy is abundantly clear: National Government has failed to manage passenger rail to the extent that it is now all but dead. It now seems, however, that the ANC is making a U-turn.”
The White Paper states a Devolution Strategy for passenger rail would be implemented from 2023, but outgoing Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has already tried to delay until at least 2024.
This is when a draft Strategy will be handed to the new Transport Minister, according to a letter from Minister Mbalula to Mayor Hill-Lewis received last week.
Hill-Lewis says the latest statement from an ANC Policy Head creates utter confusion and forces the City to seek clarity from President Ramaphosa on whether government is in fact binning the Cabinet decision on devolving passenger rail to well-run metros.
”Capetonians deserve a safe, affordable, and reliable train service, and the City’s ongoing Rail Feasibility Study aims to devolve rail in the shortest time. We are ready to re-establish a viable rail service in the best interests of commuters, and we are ready to work with national government at any time to achieve this.
‘The fact is rail has collapsed nationally. Prasa now only transports 3% of the passengers it did a decade ago nationally. PRASA is now bankrupt, with billions lost to corrupt deals, including trains too big for the tracks. Change is long overdue.”
The Mayor says the City has successfully concluded the first deliverable of its Rail Feasibility Study – the Inception Report. Next, is a status quo report on the state of passenger rail in Cape Town.
However, the Mayor says Mbalula has to date refused permission to PRASA to share this critical information with the City about the state of its operations.
“The City is determined to find ways of resolving this challenge, should the National Government undermine our devolution efforts and requests for information. We will not be dissuaded from this.”
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