Overcrowded delayed trains anticipated next 2 years

Trains in the region are subjected to be overcrowded and delayed for the next 18 to 24 months. 
Nope not an SMS-notification or announcement but what members of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament’s Standing Committee on Transport were told during a briefing by Metrorail.

Ironically the meeting started with the Metrorail delegation being delayed – not from a train, but security processes signing in.

The rail operator painted a picture of crime crippling the network, preventing it from delivering a reliable service to it’s hundreds of commuters.
Metrorail requires 88 train sets to operate a normal service, but has since October 2015 loss 101 carriages in arson-related incidents. The result? shorter trains and train cancellations. It also stated five years ago no one bothered with trains but these days more of Prasa assets are targeted.
It managed to make 200 arrest in July, 127 less than the 327 in February this year. What is interesting about this figure is for the year there has been no arrest for pick pocketing and only one for a fraudulent ticket – in March.
“It would appear as if Metrorail is now more focused on taking on rail crime than running trains,” said Nobulumko Nkondlo (ANC).
For Masizole Mnqasela (DA) it seemed as if there is no relationship between Prasa and the justice cluster, while his colleague Mark Wiley wanted to known if the State Security department is part of Metrorail’s specialised task team.
Metrorail says they not shifting the blame, but appeal that the different government agencies work with them for the rail operator to deliver a service. “We need to know why trains are burning at 1am. It cannot be because of delays, those trains were not late.”

Committee chairman, Nceba Hinana, says what concerns him is people hanging out from trains.
Although it mentioned being active on social media, commuters able to check train updates via GoMetro and SMS-notifications sent to commuters, Metrorail admitted communication is a challenge, saying they do not communicate enough to commuters.
Regional Manager, Richard Walker, shared with the committee that he himself commute by train and he also find it frustrating to arrive at a station and the electronic board is not working or don’t reflect a delay.
“One of the reasons why people board the first train arriving is because of the uncertainty if there will be a next one or what time it will arrive, adding to overcrowded trains. Part of attending to this is being more predictable.”
Metrorail’s train design team is currently re-looking the timetable and commuters could soon receive communication regarding a revised timetable, to take effect September 1st 2017. 

Two interesting points from Metrorail’s presentation of 50-slides, that even the honourable members failed to notice, is:
1) Their main stakeholder (commuters) is not included in the list of external support and partnerships.
2) Metrorail don’t now it’s own boundaries and where it runs a service. In it’s introduction it states its operations stretch across 6 municipalities and lists them as Cape Town, Drakenstein, Winelands, Breede River, Swartland and Helderberg.
Firstly a simple Google-search would have told them there is no Winelands and Helderberg municipalities. 
Secondly Metrorail’s operations stretch across: Cape Town, Drakenstein, Witzenberg, Breede Valley, Stellenbosch and Swartland.
The provincial transport minister, Donald Grant, also attended the meeting and said what is unacceptable is that commuters at times have to wait three hours for a train.
Metrorail reacted there exceptional cases do occur. 
ANC’s Cameron Dugmore says “we in agreement, Metrorail is failing and now we need to solve it together".  
He also tweeted what I’ve previously stated the problem is bigger than Metrorail. And continued: “he is not convinced the current plans are enough”.
He also suggested that Metrorail appear before the committee again, with fewer slides, and go into detail on the turn around strategy. Dugmore also want commuters and other stakeholders to be part of the meeting and give their input.
MEC Grant’s concern however is what is being done about the service for next week and next month.
Mnqasela gave the best summary of the situation: “we in a crisis and it cannot be business as usual”.


Metrorail’s solution is summarized in their accelerated turn around actions and includes:

• Increase train set availability from 60 to 65 in the next 3 months.
• Increase train set availability from 66 to 70 in the next 6 months.
• Increase train set availability from 71to 75 in the next 9 months.
• Increase train set availability from 76 to 80 in the next 12 months.
• Increase train set availability from 81 to 88 in the next 18 months.
• Reduce short trains from 86% to 50% of available trains.
• Increase reliability by
• Improving availability of rotating machines and wheels by fast track process to require components
• Availability of materials and spares by finalising regional tender process.
• Reduce signal infrastructure delays by rehabilitation of conventional signalling systems, migration of copper to fire, vandal proofing of signalling equipment and reinstatement of level crossings
• Reduce perway infrastructure delays by fast tracking procurement and approve contracts with Transnet.

Dissolve: Making South Africa Great Again

Prior to Woman’s Day South Africa saw opposition parties unite, speaking like one voice, calling on the democratically elected Jacob Zuma to step down as President. A motion of no confidence – the 8th since 2009 – even managed to get 177 votes*.

Less than 48 hours after the DA sponsored MONC failed the party informed the Speaker of the National Assembly that they will table a motion to dissolve Parliament. 

The consequence of such a motion succeeding is a General Election.
Amongst the reasons cited for the motion is the National Assembly no longer representing the will of the people, failing to hold President Jacob Zuma accountable and failing in its duties to uphold the Constitution.
Whether you agree or disagree with the DA and this motion, you have to acknowledge the length the party would go in holding Parliament accountable. 

The DA’s intentions might be pure but it is quite evident the leadership is listening to advisers in the office and not activist in the street. From online scanning it looks as if many of the party’s public representatives, across the three spheres, have expressed support for such a motion – as one would probably expect loyal DA public representatives to do – it is DA supporters and activist, those foot soldiers walking door-to-door everyday who are not in favour of this latest DA-sponsored motion.
On the ground people want to know what besides only talking about Zuma and what he is doing wrong is the DA doing about racism, youth unemployment, crime, gangsterism, land reform, housing, hate crime, etc.

One should also not underestimate your voter and say where we govern, we govern well. In the City of Cape Town residents are unhappy at high electricity prices. Despite governing the Western Cape for 8 years and many of the municipalities for more than five years there is no integrated public transport system (besides George). Very little to no economic opportunities also exist for young people in especially rural towns. Appointments in DA-led council are also mostly individuals from outside the municipal borders and seldom young people, but mostly those with years of experience (this can be good and bad).
One DA supporter sums this up as ‘why can the party not focus on where it governs and build on the gains’.

Political parties have also not reacted favourable to the proposed motion.
The Inkhata Freedom Party (IFP) says the motion is misplaced, misguided, reckless and irresponsible.
Freedom Front Plus (FF+) says it is opportunist. Dr. Pieter Groenewald says the DA must be careful or their behaviour might benefit and strengthen the Zuma faction within the ANC. “Voters will start to get discouraged because their expectation that Zuma will be oust is not met and this will result in voters becoming apolitical and won’t vote in 2019.”
Congress of the People (Cope) says as parties working in collaboration on issues of national importance they have never discussed such a motion. “We believe in supremacy of the constitution and respect the democratic electoral process and its current cycle,” says Mosiuoa Lekota.
The African National Congress (ANC) believes the motion confirms what the party has been says in the MONC debate this is an attempt by the DA at regime change through parliament.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says it already approached the DA in a move to have Parliament dissolved and was rejected and will thus not support the motion.
United Democratic Movement (UDM) says of importance is the readiness of the IEC for the 2019 National and Provincial Elections. Bantu Holomisa says the IEC needs to capture voters’ addresses before the Constitutional Court deadline of June 2018. “The IEC should move with speed to ensure that the voters’ roll is cleaned. We need to ensure that the 2019 Elections are credible, free and fair.”

For the DA’s motion to succeed it needs 201 votes. The party itself only has 89 seats and parties mentioned above: ANC: 249, EFF: 25, IFP: 10, UDM: 4, FF+: 4 and Cope: 3. 
Considering the ANC’s numerical dominance (alone), it is highly unlikely this motion will pass. What is also important to keep in mind is that the few ANC MPs who were bewitched Tuesday was unhappy with Jacob Zuma as President and not with the ANC-led government.

One cannot help but wonder why with such a big move, where you need the support of others, was there no consultation with them prior to your announcement. 
DA Leader Mmusi Maimane himself has said it looks highly likely that a coalition government might occupy the Union Buildings after 2019. With that in mind, would that not require a good working relationship now already?

Should this motion succeed and we have the election, there is no guarantee that those ANC voters upset at current events and factions in the governing party will vote for the DA. There is a bigger possibility that the EFF will gain ANC voters. One should also ask will the DA accept the outcome, whether it is majority voting for ANC again or DA shifting to third largest party.

In my humble opinion our opposition should not be too optimistic about the cracks showing in the governing party. Instead of trying to dissolve Parliament, our opposition should present Mzansi with a clear plan and not just say we will make South Africa Great Again. 



The 177 votes is significant considering the 12 opposition parties in the National Assembly together hold 151 seats. On the day of the vote, there was one vacancy in the opposition benches and two were on sick leave. Furthermore one MP indicated he won’t be voting more the motion and another also hinted at that. Having said that and considering 9 MPs abstained, one draws the conclusion about 35 of 249 ANC MPs supported the motion.