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The new Johannesburg administration intends rallying other Gauteng municipalities to hold the national department of transport as well as the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) accountable for the collapse of Metrorail in the province.
Briefing the media on Wednesday, newly appointed MMC of transport Funzi Ngobeni said the railway network was an important component of Johannesburg’s transport system.
Ngobeni was speaking alongside Johannesburg mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse and other MMCs at the Joburg Theatre.
“Metrorail is not our competency, but its networks in the city of Johannesburg have collapsed. I think that all of us are aware that they [trains] are not operating.
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“We want to start a conversation with our colleagues in the [city of] Tshwane and colleagues from the [city of] Ekurhuleni and we want to put pressure on government and hold it accountable for the collapse of Metrorail,” the councillor said.
He also said that they would push for Metrorail to be a local government competency, similar to the efforts by Cape Town officials.
“For us, we want to bring Cape Town on board, and we have already started a process where they have asked government to give up that responsibility," he said adding:
Phalatse explained that all projects aimed at improving conditions in the city’s inner city were on the cards. Her administration intended continuing with the inner city rejuvenation project.
“This administration has committed to getting the Joburg inner city right. The MMCs have a focus on the inner city. We will be centralising waste management. We have picked up that there is fragmentation when it comes to waste and illegal dumpings.
“A few years ago, a few of us here were party of government that started the inner city rejuvenation programme where we identified hijacked buildings in the inner city that we were able to reclaim, repurpose with the private sector by handing them over for redevelopment. That programme is coming back and we will make sure that all those buildings are handed over to the private sector for redevelopment,” the mayor said.
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Metrorail has been working at reduced capacity since the Covid-19 pandemic hit South Africa two years and its infrastructure was severely damaged when train services were halted.
Meanwhile, Ngobeni said potholes would be fixed and the city’s asphalt plant revived.
“With all the rain, our roads are looking bad with all the potholes and grass we need to deal with. So, the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) is ready and has put together a recovery plan that will ensure that we go in and deal with the deadlock.
“I think the executive mayor spoke a lot about investing in the infrastructure. Transport is key to the economic growth of the city, so we need to make sure that we put the investment into infrastructure, bridges and roads. It is also important to make sure the corruption inherited in the JRA, we turn it around until we reach the lowest level. We need to make sure that there are competent people doing the work as well,” said Ngobeni.
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“We have an asphalt plant in the city which allows us to get the material we can use to patch potholes. That plant has been operating at 20% of its capacity. We need to make sure that we optimise production as it is a very important strategic facility,” he added.
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