TRANSPORT
Devolution of rail network to municipalities needs clear time frame, Parliament told
Rail devolution can only happen when there are clear time frames, and once a devolution strategy has been put in place, says the Department of Transport.
The Department of Transport on Wednesday briefed parliamentarians on the White Paper on the National Rail Policy, but attention shifted to a long-standing discussion on the devolution of South Africa’s rail network.
The acting director-general in the Department of Transport, Ngwako Makaepea, briefed the National Council of Provinces about the policy, which was gazetted by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula in May.
One of the policy’s aims is to recognise and understand rail’s heritage of missed opportunities and strategic missteps in order to identify and mobilise funding and resources to reposition rail as the backbone of the country’s land transport.
Addressing parliamentarians during a virtual briefing, Makaepea said rail was an “affordable, competitive, effective, integrated, reliable, safe, sustainable and valued transport mode” which provided a backbone for the country’s freight rail and passenger mobility systems.
Devolution
Makaepea said the department had approached various metros about rail devolution. Issues such as the planning and funding of devolution would be dealt with once a devolution strategy had been concluded.
Rail devolution has been a topical issue in South Africa. Activist coalition #UniteBehind told Daily Maverick in 2019 that it supported the devolution of commuter rail.
The official opposition in Parliament, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for rail to be devolved to municipalities, with this being a central election campaign issue during the 2019 general elections. The party also called for this in September 2022, when DA MP Chris Hunsinger, the party’s parliamentary spokesperson on transport, said public transport management needed to be devolved to “capable municipalities”.
The DA-led City of Cape Town has signalled its intention to take control of the rail network, announcing a feasibility study that would look at controlling the network.
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In a statement outlining its intent, the city said a multidisciplinary team “will explore the integration of existing transport networks and ticketing and timetabling; railway operations; maintenance of assets; legal services focusing on contracts and concessions; and security planning, among others…”
However, the acting director-general said devolution had to be done within a framework.
Skills in the rail industry were also discussed. Makaepea said the Department of Transport would take custodianship of a “skills audit and tracking process” which would identify ongoing sectoral needs and promote targeted rail skills development to prepare people for employment opportunities at all levels.
Makaepae said the private-sector stakeholders had expressed interest in response to some of the questions raised. These discussions could lead to R45-billion worth of investments. Banks had also been in discussions regarding the rail policy plan and private sector contributions. DM
To the municipalities that have wrecked local infrastructure and most can’t provide a clean audit? Apparently municipalities owe millions to Eskom and are to blame for Johannesburg’s water crisis? It is a ludicrous idea as is a presentation that states the blatantly obvious in a jargon riddled word salad.
There you are! The DA doing what the ANC could not, getting the rain network going.
I think we need to evolve. Move on from Homo naledi to something more post evolution to 1993 ish. No red berets and no mshini wamis. Lets go back to go forward. Nothing worse than going forward only to go backwards.
Devolving commuter rail to metros, with the exception of Cape Town would be a disaster at this stage. I say this with a background of 9 years (1989 t0 1998) as DDG in the DoT with my responsibility being the overall responsibility for all transport on land in SA. This was during the period when the Dot was a competent body, unlike today. In 1996 under the ministership of Mac Maharaj, after a detailed study involving inter alia of international practice, we made a proposal to the rail authorities for the concessioning of commuter rail services in the country to the private sector. The obdurate rail hierarchy were not interested, preferring to retain control. We see now the result; much like what happened to many other sectors of our daily life where “unintelligent” politicians, to be polite and not to say corrupt, have disregarded professional advice and slowly but inexorably destroyed our infrastructure.