Pretoria - Parliament has expressed serious concern about the significant drop in profit from R3.5 billion to just R200 million at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) after losing customers in Tshwane and other parts of the country.

The culture of relying on trains among commuters shifted a couple of years ago when numerous corridors in Tshwane and other parts of the country were vandalised and goods stolen when train stations and rail found themselves without security.

That resulted in a couple of years without trains and a costly exercise to refurbish infrastructure, which took Prasa until late last year to recommission corridors like the Pretoria-Mabopone and Pretoria-Pienaarspoort.

Trains from Hercules to Ga-Rankuwa were among the last to be recommissioned in Tshwane.

Prasa has been on a relentless mission to recommission corridors across the country, while simultaneously finishing the refurbishment of train stations that could not be finished in time like the Eerste Fabrieke in Mamelodi.

Prasa said they faced unprecedented challenges of theft, vandalism and destruction of infrastructure exacerbated by the impact of the national lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Appropriations, Sfiso Buthelezi, said the committee was concerned about the deterioration of performance, which has been on a downward trend for about seven years, resulting in the decrease of the number of passengers from about 600 million to 16 million passengers per year.

He said this resulted in the decrease of revenue from about R3.5 billion to about R200 million per annum and the adverse audit outcomes in the past seven years, from unqualified, to qualified and now disclaimers.

"The declining numbers of passengers has resulted in less revenue resulting in creditors and small businesses not being paid. A situation the committee said must be attended to. The mismatch between big Capex Budget and no Opex, results in underspending of Capex, with all the negative outcomes associated with that," said Buthelezi.

The committee undertook to engage National Treasury to find a sustainable solution to the problem. The committee is concerned about the poorest of the poor who depend on this mode of transport.

The committee said workers cannot afford the travelling costs without metro rail.

Prasa Spokesperson, Andiswa Makanda, noted the concern by the committee and stated that they would communicate their plans and ambitions to turn things around in due course.

But it was not all negative, Buthelezi said Gibela train manufacturing is an example of what the government can creatively do to industrialise, localise and deal with the economic exclusion of many South Africans.

He said from where there was nothing, now stands state of the art manufacturing, not just an assembling plant.

"The committee also appreciated that many young people, men and women, from disadvantaged backgrounds have been skilled and employed. It congratulated Prasa board, management and employees, past and present for making it possible for South Africa to manufacture trains."

Pretoria News