It will take nothing short of a miracle to fix Prasa

It will take at least six years to rebuild the vandalised Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) railway stations, according to a railway engineer. Such is the decay and destruction of our railway stations, it will take nothing short of a miracle to fix the mess.

It’s estimated R4 billion was lost due to vandalism and sabotage over the past few years alone, never mind the damage that has been done due to years and years of mismanagement. Our state-owned enterprises are renowned for not maintaining their infrastructure and the chickens have come home to roost for Prasa.

Dr Willem Sprong, technical executive railway engineering at GIBB Engineering, said: “Our estimate we did at the beginning of this year showed us it would take at least six years just to get Gauteng back on track. Our calculations were about R4 billion and you still have Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. To say all those cities will be covered within a year is impossible.”

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We feel six years to rebuild the railway stations is a very kind estimate. It will almost certainly take longer. It’s just another case of ministers shifting the blame when it comes to their portfolios. It’s always someone else’s fault. There’s never accountability, just excuses.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said: “We inherited a broken organisation in dire straits. Through the shareholders compact we concluded with the board, we seek to address the challenges with speed, in a systematic and focused manner; when we came into office in 2019, we set out a process to address the dire state of the entity and implemented various interventions to address institutional and operational challenges at Prasa.”

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What about all the commuters who used to rely on using trains to get to work every day? They’ve now had to make alternative travel arrangements that are more costly and not as reliable.

Mr Mbalula, you are failing the poorest of the poor. Catch a wake up!