Cape Town Mayor calls on President to urgently create a joint working committee on rail devolution

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently create a joint working committee on rail devolution.

The City announced earlier in August that it will follow Intergovernmental Dispute Resolution processes after the City has on numerous occasions attempted to negotiate a Service Level Agreement with PRASA, which runs Metrorail.

PICTURE: Metrorail

At the time, Mayor Hill-Lewis said PRASA is letting commuters down by refusing to make a commitment to the City about the quality and level of passenger rail services they will deliver, and to be held accountable to those commitments.

This is despite Cabinet passing the White Paper on National Rail Police in May 2022, which commits to devolving rail to capable metros, and to producing a Rail Devolution Strategy in 2023. In May, Transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga rejected the City’s plans to take over passenger rail services.

Hill-Lewis says the lack of trains was severely felt in Cape Town during the recent violent minibus-taxi stay away, with thousands of commuters forced to walk home

The Cape Town mayor has given Ramaphosa until 31 August to respond to its request

‘’The minibus-taxi stay away has once again demonstrated the urgent need for a safe, affordable passenger rail system, especially for lower-income communities. Passenger rail must be the backbone of our network, but it has all but collapsed while Prasa refuses to be held accountable for improving service levels to the public. All spheres of government have a duty to fix this situation without delay.’’

‘’A joint working committee on devolution is especially important, given the National Transport Director-General's public commitment to gazetting a Rail Devolution Strategy within 2023. The City wants to provide input to this national strategy and settle plans to devolve rail in Cape Town. Unfortunately, our request for a joint committee has been gathering dust on the President's desk for more than two months now, which is not a situation we are prepared to tolerate,’’ added Mayor Hill-Lewis.

Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, Rob Quintas, said City officials have held extensive engagements with PRASA.

‘’It is vital that PRASA's service delivery is measurable, with clear, agreed targets for improvement as we work towards our ultimate goal of the devolution of passenger rail to the City. We are disappointed about PRASA's about-turn after their initial willingness to discuss a service level agreement. Given the sorry state of passenger rail, it seems PRASA's rationale is that they are not in a position to commit to even basic performance criteria at this stage.’’

‘’Instead, PRASA is proposing a non-consequential Memorandum of Understanding be developed, which would not legally bind them to specified service levels. This is not acceptable, as the standing Memorandum signed in 2015 has not had the desired accountability effect on PRASA and the National Government,'’ added Quintas.

 

Done by: Mitchum George