Cape Town preparing to take the fight to government

The City of Cape town says it is prepared to initiate an “intergovernmental dispute” against the national government if it doesn’t urgently create a joint working committee on rail devolution.

The city has, on multiple occasions and on multiple levels, pleaded with the national government devolve certain national functions to the provinces, arguing that it would be better equipped to deliver services that have fallen short, nationally.

Previously the city had implored president Cyril Ramaphosa to devolve policing powers to allow the city to take on issues of crime that had been left unaddressed by the South African Police Service (SAPS). These calls fell on deaf ears.

Now Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is calling on the president speed up the devolving of rail.

“The lack of a functional passenger rail system was severely felt in Cape Town during the recent violent minibus-taxi stayaway, with thousands of commuters forced to walk as far as 30km to get home due to the strike called in the middle of a working da” Hill-Lewis said.

“The minibus-taxi stayaway has once again demonstrated the urgent need for a safe, affordable passenger rail system, especially for lower-income communities. Passenger rail must be the backbone of our network, but it has all but collapsed while Prasa refuses to be held accountable for improving service levels to the public. All spheres of government have a duty to fix this situation without delay.”

Hill-Lewis said that a joint working committee on devolution is important, given the National Transport Director-General’s public commitment to gazetting a Rail Devolution Strategy within 2023.

He said the city wants to provide input to this national strategy and settle plans to devolve rail in Cape Town – however, “requests for a joint committee has been gathering dust on the President’s desk for more than two months now, which is not a situation we are prepared to tolerate”.

In May 2022, cabinet passed the White Paper on National Rail Policy, which commits to devolving rail to capable metros, and to producing a Rail Devolution Strategy in 2023.

“Up until the latest devolution progress confirmation by the Transport DG, Cabinet’s White Paper commitments have been contradicted by various senior political figures, including the current and former Transport Ministers,” Hill-Lewis said.

He said the city is keenly awaiting a devolution commitment directly from the President, given the dire need for a functional rail system in Cape Town.

The mayor has given a deadline of 31 August for the committee to be set up, failing which an intergovernmental dispute will be declared.

Dispute

The city announced earlier in August that it would follow Intergovernmental Dispute Resolution processes after the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) refused to sign a Service Level Agreement (SLA) on rail services for Cape Town commuters.

A formal SLA is a legal requirement under section 11(1)(c) of the National Land Transport Act, and the city said it has repeatedly requested Prasa to comply with its obligation to conclude this agreement.

“But Prasa informed the City – in late July – that it will not sign and commit to a binding service level agreement at this stage given the current state of rail services,” the mayor said.

“Given the sorry state of passenger rail, it seems Prasa’s rationale is that it is not in a position to commit to even basic performance criteria at this stage.”

The mayor said that is has an ongoing Rail Feasibility Study, which he says aims to chart the way to devolution.

The study has so far identified that lower-income households could save up to R932 million a year with an efficient rail service and that 51,000 jobs could be sustained while contributing R11 billion to the local economy each year.

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