The Standing Committee on Appropriations has concluded its two-day engagements with stakeholders of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). Members of the committee met with the board of PRASA, senior management and labour unions at the rail agency’s headquarters at Umjantshi House. The committee also paid a visit to the Gibela train manufacturing plant at Dunnotar in Ekurhuleni.
 
The visit to PRASA completes a week-long oversight which began in KwaZulu-Natal with a visit to Transnet port terminal at Richards Bay. PRASA said they faced unprecedented challenges of theft, vandalism and destruction of its infrastructure exacerbated by the impact of the national lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The committee is concerned about the deterioration of performance, which has been on downward trend for about seven years. It cited ,among other things, the decrease of the number of passengers from about 600 million to 16 million passengers per annum; decrease of revenue from about R3.5 billion to about R200 million per annum; and the adverse audit outcomes in the past seven years, from unqualified, to qualified and now disclaimers.

The declining numbers of passengers has resulted in less revenue resulting in creditors and small businesses not being paid. A situation the committee said must be attended to. The mismatch between big Capex Budget and no Opex, results in underspending of Capex, with all the negative outcomes associated with that.
 
The committee undertook to engage National Treasury to find a sustainable solution to this problem. The committee is concerned about the poorest of the poor who depend on this mode of transport. The committee said workers cannot afford the travelling costs without metro rail.

Commenting on Gibela train, the Chairperson of the committee, Mr Sfiso Buthelezi, said Gibela train manufacturing is an example of what government can creatively do to industrialise, localise and deal with economic exclusion of many South Africans. He said from where there was nothing, now stands state of the art manufacturing, not assembling plant.

The committee also appreciated that many young people, men and women, from disadvantaged backgrounds have been skilled and employed. It congratulated PRASA Board, management and employees, past and present for making it possible for South Africa to manufacture trains.
 
The committee called for the acceleration of depot modernisation and signalling to allow the trains to operate optimally.
 
 

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services of the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Appropriations, Sfiso Buthelezi