#TeamMmusi where is #TeamSouthAfrica

South Africa’s official opposition launched their #Election2019 campaign and with that what they’ve baptised #TeamMmusi [probably pun intended].

In the lead up to the Western Cape governing party announcing it's Premier Candidate, one of their local public representatives told me “I don’t think the DA is ready for the election”.

I responded: the DA is ready; the DA’s message is wrong.

The announcement of #TeamMmusi (I’m enjoying this hashtag) is confirmation of this.

The DA is either ignorant not to know or deliberately ignore two things:
(i) The majority of their core support constituency – in especially the Western Cape – are woman and,
(ii) the average voter really don’t care about the country being in a recession – because to them it won’t immediately change their life.

What the DA is ignoring is that many care about their municipality not delivering a service but have huge municipal rates, long queues at home affairs, dysfunctional public transport service, educators being threatened at schools, kids not safe walking to school, no aftercare program for children, no sport development in schools, arts and culture being the stepchild of the country, excuses being made about high crime level… the list is literally endless!

All issues the DA don’t address. One needs to admit that these issues are raised by the party but then blame is shifted to the ANC, with no immediate solutions put on the table.

One could debate the DA conceded defeat when Mmusi Maimane considered to consider whether to consider to be the Premier Candidate to sit in Wale Street. By now we know the ghost of Leeuwenhof won.

While one could have expected eight of the 11 to be part of the team, six are in positions one expected them to be in.

Perhaps let me just state I am not questioning the competence of #TeamMmusi – they all are competent. We however not told why they were selected to drive the respective issue.

There are a few interesting observations from #TeamMmusi, two of those include:

+ Jacques Julius to drive Secure Borders. One would have expected it to be Stevens Mokgalapa (international relations spokesperson and president of the Africa Liberal Network).
Other choices include Santosh Kalyan, Haniff Hoosen or even Ghaleb Cachalia.
+ John Steenhuisen to drive the crime issue, when the DA’s not only most vocal but knowledgeable person on crime over the past decade is Dianne Kohler Barnard – I’m sure she can name all 1138 police stations in her sleep. Steenhuisen the voice on crime is giving the critics ammunition to shoot this as bringing back the police nickname “boere”.

The irony, sorry slogan of #TeamMmusi is #OneSouthAfrica.

What boggles the mind though is apart from students, education is not a stand-alone issue and public transport and infrastructure don’t feature.

This is sad!

Not only is the biggest portion of the national budget directed to education, we have had serious incidents of school violence and other incidents.

Youth and Students are made issues but that does not mean education as a sector will be addressed. The DA will have to explain how it intends to address youth, students and access to jobs but fail or rather skip the most crucial part – foundation phase.

Like Youth and Students, State Capture and Corruption are made two separate issues. In my opinion both could have been combined as state capture is corruption and students are youth but also covered under education.

#TeamMmusi is what the DA leader and his strategist reckon Mzansi need.
What is a mystery though is where is #TeamSouthAfrica?

'Crushed' like 'candy' on trains

Struggling to catch my breath as I reach the station
“Good morning, MetroPlus, please,” I ask the lady behind the window playing candy crush on her phone.
If there was an emoticon for a question mark it would have been her facial expression.
“First class or third class?” she respond.
I told tell her this but think to myself “Not today Satan, not today.”
“What time is the train; are there any delays?” I ask before I walk. With an attitude I’m told: “Bhuti, it’s coming; just wait.”
With hundreds of other commuters I stand and wait in the cold, because there is not even a place to sit.
I hear the auntie next to me tell her friend she’s been standing here for almost 40 minutes, and there has not even been an attempt of an announcement. I doubt if I had to go ask her if Candy Crush would know anything.
Lot’s wife changed into a salt pilar from looking back. I will turn into an ice block from just standing here in the cold.
After waiting 20 minutes a train arrives.
“Hold on to your bag,” I hear someone say and then I see her diving into a scrum, just as a group scrum to get out.
From being civilized boarding the train, I end up standing. It is clear though that the train has an open-door-policy. It feels like sitting on the back of an open bakkie, driving at a high speed through the streets. This might be fun when you young, but where I’m standing it is dangerous – and cold!
I try to look around me and everyone is in their own world.

A group of school children sitting in the corner, and a group of ladies standing next to them and talking about something at work. I cannot exactly make out what is being said because everyone is talking at the same time. I’m also not sure if they talking with each other, or each in their own corner.
On my other side is a group of woman laughing about something that happened at a party. A girl who is just starring at people and not even blinking starts to smile. I’m not sure if she’s smiling at me or the joke the ladies shared. Perhaps she’s smiling because she’s feeling good.
I got such a big shock, I think I now belong to a new blood group, when a train preacher suddenly made his appearance.
With churches being so empty, it probably makes sense that a preacher would be on the overcrowded trains.
I’m not yet sure how shocked I should be when I notice there is even a collection.
Our train suddenly decides to go stand between stations and the preacher says: “It is time, my dear friend – give you heart. God is even delaying Metrorail for you to give your heart to Jesus.”
I was about to say I doubt this is that kind of divine intervention, but it looks like no one is actually listening to the sermon.
The train is just outside the next station and a big group of people got up. After 40 minutes of standing I finally get a seat. Well okay it was a seat before the foam was cut out.
My thoughts are interupted by people storming in the train. As I lift my head I see a guy running into the train. Hell, if the door on the other side was open he would have ran out!
At Bellville alot of people are getting out but more in. Those getting in are wearing short sleeves and I’m wondering if I watched the wrong weather report.
For a second I thought we still standing, but we moving – just going nowhere slowly. I’m convince I could walk faster than what we moving.
As the train stop, more and more people are getting in and just less and less getting out. Some are hanging on outside the train; others are hanging with half the body on the inside and other half outside.
The girl next to me look at me and say: “they don’t know when the next one will be arriving, so you take the first train that makes an appearance.”
Suddenly the train comes to a standsttill. We standing between somewhere and nowhere, and no one knows why.

Jumping off is not really an option.
By now Metrorail have basically used every single excuse under the sun. Even the rainy weather and load shedding was used. I am still waiting on someone to take accountability for the crisis at Metrorail. That is probably also on a delayed train.
After standing for about 35 minutes the train is moving.
“Sweeties, sweeties, peanuts!” I hear the one guy. From the other-side there is also someone shouting. I have to sit up straight to make sure I heard right: “BioPlus, BioPlus, selfie stick.”
We outside Cape Town station and I wake up my train buddy.
Do you know that taking a train is a extremely traumatic experience – if you don’t get the shock of your life, you will be stressed about standing and get frustrated with Metrorail. Or you can stare at everything around you and laugh yourself crazy.
The one fun thing about a train trip is that there is no shortage to stories, #trainstories.

• Original article appeared in Paarl Post of Thursday 23 August 2018.

Torching of trains remains a mystery

ONLY 37 of 88 trainsets currently transport about half a million commuters in the Western Cape.

This means there are now more trains out of order, than trains moving on the tracks.

Many were damaged the past three years in train fire incidents.

Metrorail has since October 2015 in nearly 30 separate incidents lost a shocking 146 train coaches.

The organisation #UniteBehind reckons there is reason to believe a syndicate is behind all the fire incidents.

“The attacks are well planned and executed and there is never any arrest,” says Matthew Hirsch, a spokesperson for the civil rights organisation.

Ricardo Mackenzie, member of the Western Cape standing committee on transport, says: “Clearly there are individuals out to cause pandemonium.”

His colleague Cameron Dugmore agrees a syndicate is a strong possibility.

Dr. Blade Nzimande, national transport minister, on Friday viewed the damages to the trains and literally scratched his head when he said there are many motives for the torching of trains.

Steve Harris, general secretary of the transport union Untu, says overcrowded trains and delays are worsening by the second.

“Those behind the torching of trans are taking bread from the mouths of families.”

After the past two fire incidents – only ses days apart – questions are being asked if it is not politically motivated. It however appears as if no one is willing to address the elephant in the room.

Hirsch mentions: “the slow progress with investigations mean the motives remain a mystery.

“It is highly likely that the deeds are committed by state capture networks.

“The recent kidnapping of Khanyisile Kweyama, chairperson of the Prasa Board, should also not be seen in isolation from the train fire incidents.”

In only the past 6 weeks 23 train coaches were destroyed.

Richard Walker, regional manager of Metrorail, says after last week Saturday’s fire on Cape Town station, a carriage at the same station was discovered with petrol spilled all over the seats.

Mackenzie says: “The sabotage of so many trains is a clear indication commuters and trains are not safe.

“This can only be resolved with more security on stations and in trains.”

According to a safety report of the rail safety regulator 69% of all railway-safety-related incidents are theft.

“Compared to 2015/2016 there has been an increase of 13% in safety-related incidents and 14% in the amount of deaths, that are directly linked with an increase in crime,” reads the report.

Nzimande says there are no plans to call in the army, for this problem.

“Prasa spends alot of money on security, but we don’t get any value for our money.

“To safe guard trains does not only mean carriages, but also the lives of commuters.

“The Cape Region is now a priority and a taskteam must report back by end of August with proposals for solutions.”

Sibusiso Sithole, group chief executive office of Prasa, says plans were to bring new trains to the Western Cape in 2019. After the torching of trains the past week he says those plans are now being reconsiderd.

HONEST

#UniteBehind says Prasa already admitted to them that there are no plans to bring new trains to the province in the next few years.

“Torching of trains cannot be used as excuse. Prasa should be honest if they want to restore commuter confidence,” says Hirsch.

On social media commuters are fed-up for “Metrofail”.

The Western Cape and in particular Cape Town, is without a safe, effective and reliable rail transportnetwork, experiencing it’s biggest challenge yes, means Dugmore.

“The current service is a threat to employment security. Thousands arrive late for work and people pay more to travel.”

Mackenzie says he is not just happy. “I am angry!

“If I am disappointed by the service I have alternative means. There are thousands who don’t have.

“Staff at stations are uninformed and some irritated to help commuters. Just in the week I asked how delayed my train would be and was told: ‘it’s coming, just wait.’

“Metrorail should not wait for everything to go wrong before they communicate with commuters.”

• This article originally appear in Afrikaans in Son op Sondag of 29 July 2018

Trains delayed due to upgrade

Train buddies should brace themselves for a lot of delays still – until the entire rail network has been upgraded.

In August 2017 Metrorail admitted to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament overcrowded, delayed trains is going to be with us for some time still.

“Experience has shown the inadvertent impact of migration to new technologies to have sporadic service failures,” explains Riana Scott, spokesperson for Metrorail.

This all is apparently part of the commissioning and testing new technology.

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) started months ago to replace the old systems with new electronic systems.

Work started on the Southern or suburban line, while work on the Monte Vista line is done by Transnet.

“The project is implemented in phases, with the southern line about 65% complete,” says Scott.

In October 2017 former transport minister, Joe Maswanganyi, announced that R9-billion is made available for the upgrade of the rail network in the Western Cape.

He also mentioned the first project which is the re-signalling project, that at the time was in its third year, is a five-year project at a cost of R2-billion.

Scott was asked what the estimated cost per phase and line is. She however only responded: “the re-signalling in the Cape Region is estimated at R1.2-billion.”

It also appears as if Metrorail have no idea why their trains are late.

Since the start of the project there has been a significant increase in not only delays but also the time you wait on a train and wait in a train between stations.

According to Scott signal- and/or power failures can be attributed to a range of causes and not only because of the current re-signalling work.

“It can be from tampering with fibre-optic to problems with migration of technology. Where migration is incomplete, a fail-safe handover is done from ‘old’ grid to ‘new’ system. This is like manual authorisation, where there is no automated signalling.

“With migration of new technology, it also happens that the electronic notice boards are not aligned to real-time movement of trains and don’t reflect the correct information. This is currently the case with the electronic boards on Cape Town station.”

Metrorail was asked when re-signalling work would commence on the other lines, with the understanding Northern Line is next. The rail operator was also how many train stations have functional announcement systems and how many have loud-hailers. After 4 days, Metrorail still failed to provide such a list or make one public.

Scott did respond per email that she was in a workshop on Tuesday and would respond by Wednesday. At the publishing of this there has still been no response.

It’s understood the workshop Scott is referring to was in fact a two-hour meeting with a civil organisation regarding safety on the central line.

A source who attended the meeting says: “there was a presentation and a lot of answers, but no progress.”



This was originally published in Afrikaans in Son Koerant on Friday 15 June 2018. Click here for link: Diens lol oor werk 

#LoadShedding stages and schedules

Mother of the Nation

Mam’ #WinnieMadikizelaMandela a tribute I have been trying to write for over a week now. I am stuck at #MotherOfTheNation, because saying more would be saying too much and saying less would be saying too little or nothing.

Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela-Mandela you not the Mother of the Nation because you were married to the Father of the Nation, Tata Nelson Mandela.

A mother is someone who loves her children unconditionally, is caring, compassionate but a fearless fighter to defend them.

Mama Winnie was this mother. When the fathers of our nation were incarcerated, it was the mother of our nation who stood up for her children, who took care, showed loved and who was a fearless fighter against injustices.

While we will never know, nor fully understand the pain and scars she had to endure, we can rest assure she never cried to show them she is weak or crack to show she gives up and for that #WinnieMandela won the fight against apartheid.

Her departure comes not only in the year that the world will celebrate the Centenary of Father of the Nation, or 25^th commemoration of the killing of Chris Hani but also in the month and time that many other big trees have fallen: Solomon Mahlangu, Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo, Ahmed Kathrada and, days after Mama Winnie, George Nene and Zola Skweyiya.

The timing of Mama Winnie’s passing is also interesting for me as it is:

- In the month the Group Areas Act was passed,

- 60-Years since the National Party won a general election with a whites-only electorate

- In April 1992 the Mandelas announced their divorce

- It was also in April 2003 that Winnie was convicted and sentence to five years in jail, but Appeal Court changed the sentence to a suspended one, of three-and-a-half years. Despite maintaining her innocence, she was forced to resign from all political positions.

All these events is perhaps the universe telling us why we will never forget the Mother of the Nation.
Lala ngoxolo Mama Winnie

This video is a letter by Mrs Graca Machel, wife of the late Tata Nelson Mandela, to whom she calls Her Little Sister

No, Prasa, you not the victim

“Prasa can only lie and should stop playing the victim”

These are the two things stuck in my head after a recent meeting of the parliamentary portfolio committee on transport.

On the agenda was the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, briefing members of parliament on the current challenges commuters face daily and safety aspects.

Halfway through the meeting and the chairperson gets up, turn her back to the meeting where I’m seated and says: “Prasa is lying”.

And then Dikeledi Magadzi, MP, walked out because neither she nor any of her colleagues are getting any answers to their questions.

Upon her return, just before the end of the meeting, Magadzi said “Prasa don’t listen. "They get 48 hours to report come back after 14 days with the same plans that says nothing.”

Prasa had nice big words, but that did not impress MPs.

I am still not sure if I am shocked or disappointed in Prasa’s presentation.

They considering mini-operational centres at stations, to improve communication to commuters.

Some of the other plans is to keep commuters informed with SMS notifications and use social media more effectively.

As a commuter myself it was traumatizing to sit and listen to the presentation.

I’m not sure on what delayed train that presentation came, but Prasa clearly has no idea what is happening around them.

I’ve been a commuter since my varsity days and back then already we received SMS notifications. Announcements at stations probably came with the stations. And social media, well this has been used for nearly five years now. BTW: I was the first person to use the hashtag #TrainReport in 2013.

Prasa did admit people are suffering, arrive late and are given warnings at work and this because Metrorail cannot deliver the service thousands of commuters deserve.

Now if you know this, what are you doing to change it?

One of the big guns mentioned about some law or policy. To be honest he lost me, because I prepared myself to hear about this or that plan.

Luckily one of the MPs came to my rescue when he stopped the Prasa-manager and said: “We not here for a workshop, go give it to Prasa employees. We want answers and plans that will ensure a safe and reliable train trip for commuters”.

Prasa should be ashamed at their presentation, where they play the victim.

With unemployment in the Western Cape at 19.5% people are literally clinging to their job. But Metrorail is sabotaging everyone’s job security.

Employers also don’t believe the excuses that trains are late every day.

In January Prasa blamed an increase in crime, lack of investment in passenger rail transport and the cost of modernisation.

Two Prasa board members then admitted things look impossible and there is no alternative plans to assist commuters.

The worst is probably that Prasa officials don’t even sit with a “we apologise for the inconvenience” expression.

Original piece appeared in Son of Friday March 9^th 2018: Read Here