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As Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) we are happy to announce that we have received an unqualified Audit opinion from Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) for the financial year 2015/16.

The consolidated and separate financial statements “present fairly”, in all material respects, the financial position of PRASA and its subsidiaries as at 31 March 2016 and their financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the SA Statements of GAAP and the requirements of the PFMA.

Although there are matters of emphasis; the AGSA has not modified its opinion. These matters of emphasis pertain to issues around litigation, re-statement of corresponding figures, material impairments and material capital commitments. PRASA has reduced its deficit from 1053,2 million to 312,4 million.

The AGSA has also audited our performance information and found it to be useful and reliable as well as presented in accordance to the National Treasury annual reporting principles. They further found that the performance was consistent with the planned objectives on both usefulness and reliability. We have achieved in this regard 47% of our annual targets.

In this financial year we are busy implementing key initiatives to improve both PRASA financial and operational performance. Some of the key initiatives includes the improvement of our rail services.

The reduction in operational costs, improving revenue, and aligning PRASA to effectively deliver on its primary and secondary mandate. In this regard we anticipate by the end of October 2016 to release PRASA’s turnaround strategy which will go further into detail and elaborate on the above matters.

We therefore call on all our stakeholders, in the main, our commuters, to work with us as we finalise this strategy in order to ensure that we deliver a dignified rail services to all our people.

Issued by Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa