Nomzamo Gatuya balances, briefly but precariously, on bricks while weaving her way through a maze of shacks along the central railway line in Langa.
About 5,000 people erected informal homes on and along the key passenger rail corridor in Cape Town in 2019, transforming the area into a shantytown that residents named Siyahlala.
The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has been on a drive to restore the vandalised commuter rail network across the country, including relocating communities whose shacks encroach on railway lines in various settlements.
While about 77% of rail corridors have been restored nationally Gatuya, committee secretary for the informal settlement, said they had yet to be relocated from Siyahlala where there were about 1,230 shacks, “but there could be more”.
“There might be more than 5,000 people living in this settlement. Most people who live here are unemployed. Our children go to local schools,” said Gatuya.
“The last time we were in contact with Prasa was during a workshop in Durbanville where they promised to move us to Mitchells Plain. However, Mitchells Plain residents were protesting against our move. Nothing has moved ever since.”
Gatuya said the residents’ lawyer last spoke to them in January 2023.
“He told us that we will be moved in November this year and that construction would start on the site in July. We are still waiting but there is no communication,” said Gatuya.
“The situation is dire here. People have vacated their shacks because they flood during the rainy season. The councillor wanted to move us to the local hall, but people could not leave their property inside the shacks because crime is rife here.”
Uninsulated electricity wires dangle perilously over the settlement.
“We are stealing power from a temporary settlement inside Langa. We don’t have a choice, we can't live without electricity. We share a single tap. We don’t have toilets. People were not moved but trains are moving, which is very dangerous. We are in the dark, no-one cares about us.”
Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makanda said the agency had recovered 12 of 14 lines in the Western Cape. She said trains were running on the Northern, Southern, Central, and Cape Flats corridors, including the Stellenbosch to Cape Town line.
“Another significant milestone is the recent rollout of the new blue and white hi-tech mega trains — Isitimela Sabantu/The People’s Train on the central line on July 30 extending to Philippi and Nolungile stations,” she said.
“Prasa has recovered 31 of the 40 corridors nationally (77%). The current work is to optimise the service, this includes re-signalling the network, adding more frequencies and recovering additional lines on the recovered corridors. This work is expected to be completed by 2026/27, but re-signalling the network will continue.”
Given the implosion of passenger rail, the city has seen a huge increase in the number of people now making use of road-based transport, be it in private vehicles, minibus-taxis or buses.
— Urban mobility MMC Rob Quintas
Makanda said Prasa's full recovery and modernisation capital projects were projected to contribute an estimated R189bn to the economy.
“What was important for Prasa, in line with its primary mandate of providing commuter rail services, was to reopen the central line,” said Makanda. “Prasa temporarily shifted a few of the households to a temporary site to recover and fix the network. Trains and services are now operating on the central line.
“The relocation of the households on the central line is handled by an intergovernmental structure comprising the departments of transport, human settlements, public works, the provincial government, Prasa and the City of Cape Town, with the housing development agency as the implementing agency.”
Makanda said a full relocation had not yet commenced, pending statutory processes which were at various stages, in consultation with the City of Cape Town.
“Prasa has introduced an integrated security plan that includes the deployment of additional security to safeguard the network, deployment of security inside our trains, our stations and platforms. Prasa is also working with private security and SAPS. In addition, Prasa is introducing security technology, including CCTV at our depots and the new trains come with on-board CCTV cameras,” said Makanda.
The City of Cape Town has been advocating for the devolution of Metrorail to local government. Urban mobility MMC Rob Quintas said.
The city is busy with the rail feasibility study, which is investigating the feasibility, risk and implications of the urban passenger rail function forming part of the City’s public transport function to plan and provide quality public transport services.
“Given the implosion of passenger rail, the city has seen a huge increase in the number of people making use of road-based transport, be it in private vehicles, minibus-taxis or buses,” said Quintas.
The city's latest comprehensive integrated transport plan showed up to 58% of commuters used private vehicles to get to their destinations and 22% used minibus taxis. Quintas said 9% of people used buses and only 2% used rail — a 95% decline for the period 2012 to 2022.
“However, given that more people now rely on road-based transport, there is more pressure on our road networks — not only in terms of maintenance needs, but also congestion, and pressure on the city to provide more and bigger public transport interchanges to accommodate buses and minibus-taxis,” he said.
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