One train is not a railway, Mbaks

A surprising aspect of Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s interaction on Twitter this week was how many positive comments he got over his announcement that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has resumed commuter rail services between Naledi in Soweto and Johannesburg.

We should not, as individuals, or as a nation, be praising a fish for swimming.

It is Mbalula’s job – and it is the job of his ANC government – to provide mass transit services to ordinary people.

It is also, lest we forget, the fault of Mbalula and the broader ANC administration that Prasa – and much of the Transnet inter-city rail infrastructure – was allowed to be looted in the first place.

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Even before Covid hit, the ANC had scrapped the efficient railway police system and replaced it with private security firms – no doubt at huge cost and with huge backhanders to the comrades.

Not only that, but Mbalula, as responsible minister, then did not renew security contracts, leaving the country’s rail system unguarded. The results are plain for all to see in the missing railway tracks, overhead cables and stripped station facilities.

So, Mbalula’s grandstanding about some limited rehabilitation should not be celebrated – especially considering it has taken far too long and, no doubt, cost way too much … much more, in fact, than it would have cost to secure these facilities in the first place.

We also worry that, despite the photo-opportunity images of heavily armed security personnel at the relaunch, it will not be long before the lines and facilities will again be looted.

We wonder, too, whether the taxi industry – which has had a captive audience and been charging twice the train fares – will take this serious threat to its livelihood lying down. One swallow doesn’t make a summer – and one train doesn’t make a railway system.

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