Prasa revenue loss due to the lockdown estimated at R199 million

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) administrator Bongisizwe Mpondo said revenue loss due to the lockdown period, from April to the end of May, was estimated at R199 million, resulting in further cash constraints on an already strained financial entity.

He estimated the revenue loss for the year at this stage at R757 million, however, he said this could change depending on the rail commuter operations.

As predicted the lockdown has left some businesses financially in trouble, this effect proves to be no different to state-owned entities.

He said Prasa has put in place health and safety measures at some of their stations in preparation to the opening of train services expected to resume at level 3.

“Precautions to limit community transmission and outbreaks such as screening and testing at stations in collaboration with the department of health, crowd management and social distancing will be practised with clear commuter protocols: compulsory wearing of masks and no eating or drinking on trains.”

He said sanitation booths were being sourced for “super-core and core stations”, large depots and offices.

“A deep cleaning and disinfection programme has commenced for depots and stations. Train disinfection commenced and all trains in use will be disinfected after every trip,” he said.

Mpondo said Prasa is in talks with SAPS to assist with the handling of crowd-control once the services resume, as they anticipate a large number of commuters.

“We are considering a corridor-by-corridor resumption.”

However, Mpondo said a delay from the department of transport for financial support to ramp-up Prasa’s Covid-19 health measures could delay the full resumption of its services.

This could further damage the rail company that is already looking into job cuts, through voluntary severance packages, to balance the finance sheets for its survival.

“No one anticipated Covid-19. We made a request to the government for financial support to cushion the blow of the pandemic. However, we have not received any response yet,” he said.

Aside from the Covid-19 impact, Mpondo said safety has been one of the factors weakening the finances of the state-owned entity with a high number of cable theft and vandalism.

Mpondo said Prasa is set to improve their security.

“The specifications are being developed for security technology. Depot fencing designs have been concluded. A tender for the appointment of a depot fencing contractor will be advertised by June 2020.

“A tender for the appointment of the design consultant for the corridor walling design will be going to the market before the end of June 2020.

“Appoint Long-Term Security and SAPS has assisted Prasa in developing security specifications for the appointment of private security firms.”

Mpondo said weekly inspections were undertaken on trains monitoring any theft and vandalism activity and to keep rails roadworthy. Therefore a drop in these crimes was observed.

He said Prasa was also in talks with Eskom to try and negotiate power tariffs, as these were hamming hard on the entity’s budget.

Completion dates for several Prasa improvement projects such as Central Line in Cape Town and Mabopane Corridor in Tshwane will be pushed back due to a halt in construction during the lockdown.

Mpondo said since March, Prasa terminated all services during the lockdown period level 5 and level 4 in line with government regulations.

While announcing some of Prasa’s success plans, he said four new trains have been provisionally accepted from the local factory during the January to March 2020 period.

He said about 12 senior officials were investigated for fraud and some were to face prosecution soon. This was one of the areas, Mpondo promised to zoom in on when he took over Prasa in December after the board was dissolved due to lack of financial management issues.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on Friday said Prasa would only resume services once government would be satisfied with its Covid-19 health measures under level 3. The date of the resumption is not yet clear.

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