Cape Town – Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has announced that the City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility Directorate has received the go-ahead to conduct a detailed feasibility study on the metropolitan rail function.
Speaking during a council meeting held on Thursday, Hill-Lewis disclosed that the national government, through Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, had shown support for the devolution of the metropolitan rail function to the City.
“I think every councillor here, and every resident of the city, shares my frustration with the national government-controlled passenger rail service, run by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa),” Hill-Lewis said.
“The national government’s rail service has reached a crisis point in Cape Town, with just 33 operational train sets in 2020 compared to 95 train sets in 1995.
“If a local or regional government can carry out functions that the national government is failing to fulfil, then those functions should be devolved to that local or regional authority. This is what I call ‘functional federalism’. Thankfully, the Constitution backs me up on this point.
“I am very pleased to announce here today that the City of Cape Town is now ready to proceed with a detailed feasibility study for the devolution of the metropolitan rail function to this metro,” Hill-Lewis said.
The City has already issued a tender for the study, and work is expected to begin as soon as the new financial year starts in July this year, according to Hill-Lewis.
In response to the announcement, DA Interim Provincial Leader Tertuis Simmers said that the party was delighted with the news of the study and looking forward to the work that would soon begin to get trains in Cape Town up and running again.
“The railway system in South Africa is a national government competency and the metro railway system in Cape Town has fallen into decay. It has not been functioning optimally for many years.
“This has put tremendous strain on Capetonians, since residents in Cape Town are desperately reliant on the metro rail network for commuting to and from work,” Simmers said.
“The DA in the Western Cape promised, in the 2019 election campaign, that it would fight hard for the devolution of this function and that our railway system would perform better if it was locally managed.
“Treasury’s green light for the feasibility study is a recognition of the DA-led City of Cape Town’s capability of managing the rail network successfully,” Simmers said.
When asked for comment, Prasa said since this is a policy issue they will leave it up to the national Transport Department to comment.