Cape Town’s commuter rail services have been halted following a dispute between the city’s management and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA).
Six months ago, Cape Town’s mayoral committee council entered discussions with PRASA, which is run by the national government, and formed a Service Legal Agreement (SLA), which would, among other things, transfer operations of the city’s Metrorail services over to the local government.
PRASA then declared in late July that it would not sign and commit to a binding SLA at this point, given the current state of rail services.
“This is neither acceptable nor lawful, and the City now has no choice but to proceed with formal dispute resolution processes,’ said Cape Town’s Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.
Legal dispute
“An SLA is just a written commitment as to what levels of service they [PRASA] are providing over the coming months as they rebuild their service, so that we can hold them publicly accountable, as is required by law,” Hill-Lewis explained in a recent interview on Cape Talk.
PRASA instead proposed that the two parties could rely on a “memorandum of understanding,” which is not enforceable by law, said the mayor.
“‘A formal Service Level Agreement is a legal requirement under section 11(1)(c) of the National Land Transport Act, and the City has repeatedly requested PRASA to comply with its obligation to conclude this agreement with us,” the Cape Town government said in an official statement.
“Ultimately, this agreement will also form the foundation for the long-awaited devolution of rail to the metro, and all the benefits this will bring for Cape Town residents in desperate need of an affordable, safe, and reliable rail service.”
In May 2022, South Africa’s cabinet passed the White Paper on National Rail Policy, which committed to “devolving” (handing over operations from national to local government) the country’s passenger train network.
These commitments have since been contradicted by various senior political figures, including the current and former Transport Ministers, said Cape Town’s authorities.
The city is now pursuing an Intergovernmental Dispute Resolution with PRASA to resolve the matter.
In an ongoing Rail Feasibility Study, the city found that an efficient passenger rail service could save households up to R932 million per year, and that the service itself could create more than 51,000 jobs and generate R11 billion for the local economy every year.
Public transport crisis
The dispute and subsequent shutdown of Cape Town’s metro services occurred in the same week that the city has been facing major protests from minibus taxi operators, leaving thousands of citizens stranded without a viable transport alternative.
The taxi protests are the result of new by-laws that were recently put into practice, that allow for city officials to impound vehicles for a variety of new infractions such as missing licence plates.
The resulting taxi protests, combined with the train disputes, mean large sections of the population are now relying on an overburdened bus service to get to and from work, according to EWN.
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