STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT
CAPE TOWN METRORAIL SERVICES SUSPENDED DUE TO ARSON
MYCITI SERVICES TO KHAYELITSHA AND MITCHELLS PLAIN REMAIN PARKED.
ARMAGEDDON IS LOOMING WHILE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IS DELINQUENT. HEADS SHOULD ROLL.
28 November 2019
This morning we woke up to news that Cape Town’s commuter rail service had to be suspended due to the early morning arson attack on rolling stock in the Cape Town Station.
Metrorail services have been suspended, on numerous lines, over the past few weeks with services to the Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain communities experiencing a prolonged period with no train service.
At the same time, the City of Cape Town’s MyCiTi N2 Express service, launched in July 2014, stopped operating on 1 June 2019 after the City was unable to negotiate a new operating contract with Codeta Khayelitsha.
This time last year, in the last quarter of 2018, the MyCiTi N2 Express service provided 662 000 passenger trips to commuters from Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain.
On 1 June 2019, when I learnt of the collapse of the MyCiTi N2 Express, I wrote to the Provincial Minister Madikizela urging him to intervene urgently to get the MyCiTi service operational again.
When the MEC and the City leadership failed to respond, or to get the service operating again, I wrote to the National Minister of Transport on 15 July 2019 – urging him to intervene.
6 months later and the service remains mothballed and there is absolutely no indication of any meaningful effort to get the service operating by any of the political leaders.
Now two full train sets, comprising 18 carriages, have been destroyed while parked overnight in the main city station – Cape Town Station.
This is not the first time that criminals have gained access to trains that are parked overnight in the Cape Town station.
This is incomprehensible. A major transport hub, in the heart of the city centre, under the protection of security services, is allowed to be attacked again in the exactly the same manner as before.
We are entitled to expect that PRASA and Metrorail learnt from the first attacks where the vulnerabilities are and took steps to shut down those vulnerabilities.
How could this happen, again?
This sabotage of our rail network cannot be allowed to continue.
I have said before that a well-orchestrated and sinister force is at work to destroy our very fragile and very essential rail service.
The total collapse of our rail service is a prospect too ghastly to contemplate.
The real “day zero” – the day of armageddon – that awaits this city is the day when our rail service is completely destroyed.
The impact on the future of this city and all of our well-being – not just those who are forced to use the rail service or public transport – is dependent on the public transport network and services functioning.
At this point in time the service is limping along and our political leadership – who hold executive office from the Minister of Transport to the MEC for Transport to the Mayor of Cape Town – are absent or delinquent in the exercise of their responsibilities.
Accountability requires that these leaders show us how they are fixing this or they should make way for those who are willing and able to do so.
So far, it looks like heads should roll.
Ends.