THE Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has set up a committee to find solutions including buying land to houses people who have built shacks on the Central Line to resume operations.
Prasa appeared before Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to account for the delays in its submission of the annual report and financial statements for the 2020/21 financial year.
Board chairperson Leonard Ramatlakane told the oversight body that the inter-governmental committee was tasked with finding alternative land for the residents who illegally occupied rail lines in Langa and Philippi.
“In the case of Langa we have to find a solution by July to meet the deadline set by the Western Cape High Court. That means that private land might even be purchased,” said Ramatlakane.
He said the rail operator faced a R4 billion bill for rebuilding infrastructure across the country to bring its services back online.
“On the Central Line we are working hard to meet our commitment to have it up and running as soon as possible. Even if it means running one line on diesel while fixing others because many poor people rely on trains,” said Ramatlakane.
The Central Line served Nyanga, Bonteheuwel, Philippi, Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Bishop Lavis and Bellville commuters.
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula said the full recovery of the Central Line, the busiest in the Western Cape and a lucrative one for Metrorail, was being hamstrung by the relocation of illegal settlements on the track and reserve in Langa and Nyanga.
Acting group chief executive David Mphelo said train services were running on the lines where there was no encroachment, including between Langa and Cape Town via Pinelands and Mitchells Plain.
“We’re bringing the line from Langa to Bellville via Sarepta back on line. But between Nyanga and Khayelitsha, it’s a bit tricky,” he said.
Mphelo said fencing off some lines was progressing well.
Scopa was told Prasa was in a dire financial position and was not generating sufficient revenue to cover its operating costs.
In the 2020/21 financial year the group posted a loss of R1.9bn. Mbalula said Prasa’s operating costs remained high and increased to R15.5bn in 2020/21.
“This is against the backdrop of fare revenue which declined by R900 million mostly due to network and train unavailability due to Covid-19 restrictions and infrastructure damage.
“As a consequence, Prasa has become dependent on a subsidy in the form of operational and capital grants,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula also noted that the disruption of the pandemic came at a time when Prasa was grappling with security challenges which resulted from the termination of irregular security contracts without a contingency plan in place.
He said the decision left the Prasa environment exposed to criminals that had all but stripped bare its infrastructure. As a result, the process of service recovery had been slow due to the state of repair of the infrastructure.
Mphelo added that an additional 3 000 security staff had been hired.