Dithering as death toll climbs on Moloto road

JABULANI Sibiya did not have to die on Monday morning.

The 38-year-old construction worker was among 30 people - mainly commuters - killed in the latest horror crash along the notorious R573, better known as the Moloto road, in Mpumalanga.

"We have been complaining about having to travel on this road, but nothing is ever done. They promised us the train such a long time ago, but I don't think we will ever see it," said Sibiya's grieving mother, Emma Skhosana.

Promises of a railway line date back to the 1980s, according to many residents.

Five years ago, the cabinet gave the green light for an R8.9-billion Moloto Rail Corridor that would link Mpumalanga and Pretoria in Gauteng.

It was hoped that a rail link would ease the pressure on the badly maintained stretch of road used by scores of freight trucks every day. Nearly 500 commuter buses also use the 152km road, which traverses three provinces - from Pretoria in Gauteng through KwaMhlanga in Mpumalanga to Marble Hall in Limpopo.

Traffic has surged over the years, but no improvements have been made to the narrow road on which nearly 100 people have been killed in accidents since 2009.

Not a cent has been spent on the rail project since an initial feasibility study was completed in 2007.

The then minister of transport, Jeff Radebe, in an address to the National Council of Provinces in 2008, said: "My department is in the process of establishing a project management office to implement this project, which will entail the construction of approximately 100km of rail line from Mpumalanga into Tshwane in Gauteng at a cost of approximately R8.9-billion."

Today, under a new minister, Dipuo Peters, the Department of Transport is still talking about doing preparatory work for the project.

Peters ordered a high-level probe into Monday's accident. Her spokesman, Tiyani Rikhotso, said she would now begin a process of making sure that all decisions taken on the railway corridor would be implemented.

This included a new feasibility study, decided on two years ago.

Rikhotso said the department also planned to fast-track the implementation of its new railway policy, which was tabled in parliament two days after Monday's accident.

Peters's department could not explain the cause of the delay in the rail corridor project, but Rikhotso said this would be investigated.

"The most important thing right now is to ensure that we move forward. The urgency can never be overemphasised," he said.

This brings little comfort to the families of Monday's crash victims.

"We have complained about having to travel on this road and nothing is ever done," said Skhosana.

She sometimes makes the same trip that her son was making when he was killed, travelling to Pretoria to sell brooms to supplement her social grant.

Sitting next to the half-constructed house Sibiya was building on weekends, his older sister, Jabulani, said his only dream had been to ensure that his whole family had roofs over their heads.

"He built these houses from scratch," she said, pointing out two other brick-and-mortar houses in their yard.

"Why must we take risks like this just to get to work? Every time he took a bus, I could do nothing but worry," she said.

The relatives of another crash victim, Samson Sithole, 38, a father of three, also cited the empty promises of a railway line.

His aunt, Christina Mthimunye, said they had been expecting Sithole to walk in after work on Monday as usual, but "the bus did not bring him back".

"Accidents like these are not new - I just never thought my family would ever be affected. And every time it happens they always talk about this railway idea. It makes me sick," she said.

Mthimunye said Sithole had spoken of the possibility of being killed in a bus crash during his commute only three days before his death.

Democratic Alliance transport spokesman Ian Ollis said there was a desperate need to expedite the railway line. He said the government had abandoned the previous plan because the Department of Transport and the Treasury could not agree whether the railway should be a conventional gauge line or have a wider gauge like the high-speed Gautrain.

He said the Treasury had asked the Department of Transport to commission a new feasibility study because it was not convinced a railway would be more cost-effective than upgrading the Moloto road.

He said the road could not handle the high volume of passenger transport using it daily.

"Over the Easter period the road gets even more congested with traffic to Moria for the Zion Christian Church pilgrimage," Ollis said.

He said a rail link could connect with the existing lines around Pretoria and give passengers access to stations all around the city.

Ashref Ismail, spokesman for the Road Traffic Management Corporation, said a preliminary investigation suggested that Monday's crash happened after one truck drove into another that was travelling in the same direction. This caused two buses to collide.

Ismail said that an assessment of the vehicles would be conducted to determine whether they had been roadworthy, among other things.

skitis@sundaytimes.co.za