Prasa’s bid to restore Cape Town commuter trains comes off the rails

Shacks on the tracks have taken the steam out of efforts to revive commuter trains on what was once Cape Town’s busiest railway line. 

Thanks to a high court eviction order, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) was supposed to have moved about 1,300 people from the central line tracks in Langa by Friday.

But Mxoleleni Ngutyana, head of the informal settlement committee in Siyahlala, told Sunday Times Daily last week the relocation process had ground to a halt.

“Prasa officials told us that the residents of the area [in Eerste River] we were going to be moved to don’t want us in their neighbourhood,” said Ngutyana. “They are now renegotiating. The officials said we could be moved in July next year.”

Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makanda said the high court had granted the parastatal an extension for the relocation of the Siyahlala residents until July 31. This would “allow for further consultations with the affected communities and to ensure compliance with all statutory requirements”.

Ngutyana said the residents of the settlement, which began to form in 2017, were disappointed by the delay. “We have no water, no roads and no electricity,” he said. 

The settlement is powered by illegal connections, and what used to be a busy commuter route has become an eyesore. Rail infrastructure has been vandalised, copper cables have been stolen and the tracks have been turned into a dump.

Most residents do not have formal jobs and rely on the nearby Epping industrial area for temporary work. Their children attend local schools.

Commuters often start their day in what most of us would consider the middle of the night, waking up at 3am to prepare for work and to start queueing at the taxi ranks. It is an unsustainable and inhumane commuting reality. 

—  GOOD party secretary Brett Herron

GOOD party secretary and former Cape Town mayoral committee member for transport Brett Herron said the “collapse of the network and service is a massive blow for commuters and for our city’s functionality”.

He said by 2014 the rail system operated with about 88 train sets and was already showing signs of strain.

“All of that demand has been transferred to the road network, without the road network having added any capacity,” he said.

Herron, who has had an antagonistic relationship with the City of Cape Town since leaving the DA, blamed “an uncooperative city leadership that is unwilling to work with Prasa to find a solution”.

He called on the city’s new leadership under mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis to “urgently fast-track a solution and rise above their irrational views that a national entity like Prasa is an enemy because it falls under an ANC national government”.

Makanda said Prasa hoped to begin relocating the Siyahlala residents before the July deadline, allowing it to start refurbishing lines leading to heavily populated areas such as Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha.

She said challenges in accessing land for the residents of Siyahlala emerged during consultations with the Western Cape government, the City of Cape Town and the public works department.

“It is also public knowledge that the receiving community of Eerste River issued a petition in September opposing the proposed move of Langa residents to their area. Consultation with the receiving community is still ongoing,” she said.

“The closure of the central line has come at a huge cost and inconvenience for the hundreds and thousands of commuters who rely on affordable railway transport to get to and from work.

“However, any relocation needs to comply with all statutory requirements. This includes public engagements, preparing of the land, including geo-tech assessment, feasibility study, environmental impact assessment, earthworks, installation of interim engineering infrastructure, and so on.”

While the court order relates to Langa, Makanda said Prasa’s property had also been illegally occupied in Khayelitsha and Philippi.

“The relocation of illegal occupations will happen in different phases and stages. Langa relocations will be followed by Philippi and Khayelitsha after consultations with the affected residents,” she said.

Malusi Booi, the mayoral committee member for human settlements, said Cape Town has 347,000 applicants on its housing needs register.

“The city’s new human settlements strategy aims to enable up to 30,000 more opportunities per year, mainly to be delivered by the private sector,” he said.

Booi said there was a “rising challenge of accommodation, especially for those earning less than R22,000 a month.

“The city spent 98% of the capital grant money received for housing in the 2019/20 financial year. A fundamental shift is required and change in mindsets about affordable housing.”