Maswanganyi insists transport entities are thriving

Minister of Transport Joe Maswanganyi says the presidential review committee will hold transport entities and their leaders accountable for their performance‚ yet insisted that their performance is “above average”.

The briefing in Pretoria on Friday comes after the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) incurred the highest irregular and unauthorised expenditure in its existence‚ following ratings agencies’ downgrade of the embattled Sanral (South African National Roads Agency) and in the midst of calls for a Parliamentary probe into state capture in light of President Jacob Zuma's controversial relationship with the Gupta family.

Maswanganyi said although there were “challenges” at various state entities‚ the majority were performing well. He said in the 2015-16 financial year Prasa achieved 45% of its predetermined objectives compared with 35% in the previous financial year. “Most of our entities are performing above average. However‚ there might be those with challenges. We are working with them to assist them. We want to make sure that we live up to giving rail to the people of Moloto and road expansion‚” Maswanganyi said.

Despite facing difficulty in ensuring compliance to Gauteng’s electronic tolling system on freeways‚ Maswanganyi said Sanral attained 99% of its performance targets. The agency also received unqualified audit opinion from the auditor general for the thirteenth year in a row.

Maswanganyi said that through the findings stemming from the presidential review committee’s work‚ the department has resolved to introduce training for staff at the 12 entities as well as systems to provide incentives for strong performance and good governance.

“We will improve our investment in training at all levels‚ from managers and research scientists down to the level of ordinary workers to improve skills. In this regard‚ our SOEs [state owned entities] incentives systems will be related to performance‚” he said.

He lauded the Airports Company SA for achieving 96% of its targets. He said the Road Accident Fund (RAF) reduced outstanding claims to 217 182 in 2016‚ despite a sharp increase in registered claims.

“It is encouraging to note that despite the obvious challenges affecting both the country and the RAF in particular‚ there was an improvement in performance‚ with the organisation fulfilling 90% of its APP targets‚” he said.