Minister Mbalula aims to revitalise Joburg’s train stations
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has said that the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of South Africa’s rail works.
On Monday morning, Mbalula unveiled Prasa’s (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) revitalisation plan to revive train stations that fell to vandalism around Johannesburg.
Mbalula, along with Prasa Group CEO, Zolani Kgosie Mathews and Leornard Ramatlakane conducted an oversight visit at three of the city’s hardest-hit stations to assess the extent of the damage.
The first stop was the Mayfair Station in Johannesburg where cables had been stolen, and walls have been filled with graffiti.
The second stop was Kliptown Station in Soweto which, today, could be mistaken for an abandoned wasteland. The last visit of the day was the Germiston Station, east of Johannesburg.
Speaking to media at the Kliptown Station, Mbalula acknowledged that the station had not been protected.
“The vandalism that happened here you can see, it’s not something that happened overnight. It happens over some time. There was no security and that tells you a problem from Prasa. The extent of the damage is what you see now,” he said.
More than 50 000 commuters used made use of the Kliptown train station before the movement of trains was stopped as part of the country’s Covid-19 response strategy. Over the lockdown period, the station was extensively vandalised and looted.
“The impact of Covid 19 restrictions exposed the vulnerability of our network,” Mbalula said in a media briefing after the assessment. “Resulting in occupation of the of the reserve by people who build illegal settlements on the tracks and inside the reserve.”
Despite the heavy damage, Mbalula was adamant that the stations could be refurbished and be brought back to function in a short space of time.
“The mission we want to see here is that trains must be back to operation,” he said.
Despite the COVID-19 disruptions, as at March 2021, 25 new trains had been provisionally accepted for delivery. This brings the total number of new trains delivered to date to 61. As at end of February 2021, a total of 878 jobs were created in the Rolling Stock Fleet Renewal. https://t.co/sZ7hQeS3BY pic.twitter.com/NdpD3Hl9fN
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) May 24, 2021
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