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As Transport Month concludes and November brings a vitally-important festive and tourist season ever closer, Prasa continues to fail in its mandate. Not only has minimal progress been made on restoring services to the City of Cape Town, but the DA has learned that Prasa’s long distance rail division, Shosholoza Meyl, will only resume services to and from Cape Town in May of next year.

At present, more than 450 employees at Cape Town Station sit in limbo. More than 100 of them were employed specifically to work on long distance trains which have simply stopped running. These employees had originally been told that the trains would be operational by November, but now say that they have been told to only expect services to resume in May of next year. Shosholoza Meyl seemed to confirm this when the DA called, saying that trains from Cape Town were on hold “until further notice”.

This delay means that those who cannot afford more expensive transportation options will remain cut off from the rest of the country for more than half a year from now. At the same time, Cape Town and the Western Cape will suffer reduced revenues over a vital festive season – the first after the lifting of lockdown restrictions. Prasa’s failure to ensure the future of long-distance rail travel to the Western Cape will have both social and economic consequences, at a time in which South Africa and the Western Cape can ill-afford either.

MPP Ricardo Mackenzie says; “It is tragic that such a potentially valuable service has been shuttered for so long. If run well, the Shosholoza Meyl service could be  a lifeline for millions of South Africans. Instead, it has joined a long list of public entities which have been run into the ground by an uncaring and incompetent national government.

This situation cannot be allowed to stand. I will write to National Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula to ascertain the truth of this matter, and to demand that Cape Town is included in the process of resuming Shosholoza Meyl’s services. Our people have a right to affordable options when travelling across the country, and it is unacceptable for Prasa to leave them stranded.”

Issued by Ricardo Mackenzie, MPP - DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Transport