#UniteBehind welcomes the appointment of a Board of Control for PRASA. For the past four years we have campaigned for the appointment of a permanent, credible and competent Board in line with the provisions of the law and the inclusion of people like Dr Alison Lewis in the Board gives us confidence.
We however note that representatives from the Department of Transport, National Treasury and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), who are supposed to be part of the Board, have not been announced.
We hope that the new Board will tackle the disastrous handling of security that has resulted in severe losses of infrastructure, take clear steps to recover the resources stolen from PRASA and rebuild the entity’s capacity among many measures to fix our trains.
PRASA is in its worst position following years of state capture and leadership instability. It has been without a permanent Board since 2017. And in the last 10 months it has had no Board at all, instead it was run by an individual ‘Administrator’, Mr Bongisizwe Mpondo whose appointment was set aside by the high court in August this year.
The last four years have seen the fight against corruption and the work of fixing commuter rail interrupted. Millions of working class and poor commuters continue to endure the erratic and unsafe rail service offered by PRASA. In communities such as Khayelitsha, Langa, Bontheuwel in Cape Town, where there has been no trains for over a year, commuters have had to resort to expensive alternatives.
#UniteBehind congratulates the appointees and looks forward to working with all of them to ensure that PRASA fulfills its mandate and to fix commuter rail.
WE ARE ENCOURAGED BY RECENT VICTORIES:
Our members and activists have been encouraged by the recent victories on major issues that we have campaigned on for in the recent years. The victories include the Western Cape High Court’s setting aside of the appointment of the purported ‘administrator’ instead of a Board of Control. #UniteBehind is in the process of reviewing some decisions taken by the erstwhile Administrator, Mr Bongisizwe Mpondo.
The other major victory was the Judicial Service Commission’s advice to the President to suspend Judge Makhubele pending the finalization of investigation into her role of enabling at PRASA.
#UniteBehind was also vindicated in its joint fight with PRASA for the recovery of money that was wasted through the corrupt tenders given to Siyangena Technologies when Lucky Montana was the Group CEO. The Gauteng High Court set aside the contracts between the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) and Siyangena Technologies.
#UniteBehind remains committed to campaigning for an affordable, safe and efficient commuter rail service.
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Contact: Zukie Vuka on 065 822 5862 or Laddie Bosch on 083 540 2198