First published by GroundUp

It is 5.20am at the Chris Hani train station in Khayelitsha. It is cold, the sun has yet to rise and no commuters are in sight. GroundUp is among journalists taken by shuttle by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to Chris Hani station for a train ride with the newly-appointed minister of transport, Fikile Mbalula.

His plan was to take a train from Khayelitsha to Langa and live the daily experience of Cape Town commuters. But after long delays and reports of two deaths on the Central Line, Mbalula abandoned his fellow commuters at Philippi train station and completed the trip using his ministerial car convoy.

At the beginning of the trip, at Chris Hani station, about 30 police officers, including the South African Police Service (SAPS), Metro and the balaclava’d TRT (Tactical Response Team), were present. Members of #UniteBehind, a commuter activist group, also came to share their grievances with the minister.

Nineteen-year-old Sisipho Mathotyang says her experience of Metrorail has been traumatic. In 2018, she was robbed and sexually harassed while travelling to school. ‘There was no security, no person to make sure that we as women and also children are safe,’ she said. Mathotyang was robbed of her cellphone. #UniteBehind said it is requesting an urgent meeting with the minister.

Bonelwa Mangala, a commuter from Makhaza in Khayelitsha, was at the station at 5.40am. Mangala is a cleaner at the Waterfront and needs to be at work at 7.30am. Because of delays, she has been late many times.

Mangala says she has been using the train for eight years and it has only got worse. While commuting, Mangala has been robbed of her cellphone and wallet. “We like to travel with the train because it’s cheaper than other transport”. She says that it would cost her R60 a day travelling by taxi. The train costs her R190 a month.

Mbalula’s train was scheduled to leave at 5.30am. But it didn’t and by 6.10am, some commuters had returned their tickets for a refund.

Fikile Mbalula was appointed as the minister of transport on 30 May 2019. He previously held positions of the minister of police and the minister of sport and recreation.

At 6.15am, Mbalula made his way from the station office to address commuters on the platform. He said his mandate from President Cyril Ramaphosa was to “fix” the railway system.

“My starting point is to establish a war room,” said Mbalula. In this “war room”, all the issues would be addressed with the help of community and government, he said.

He was short on details on how this plan would be accomplished.

“This is a national crisis. As we invest resources here, they must not go to plunder,” he said.

Philippi train station, where the minister gave up on his train journey.

The train eventually left the station at about 6.45am, more than an hour later than expected. Richard Walker, the Western Cape head of Prasa, said the delays were due to issues with the overhead traction wires.

“This train should be full now because it is cheaper [than taxis], but people have left,” said Mbalula.

The coach Mbalula was travelling in had no windows and most of the seat covers had been removed.

A member of the TRT, specially deployed for the minister, kept watch in between the carriages.

As the train made its way from station to station, it slowly filled up, making it difficult to move around.

After Mitchells Plain, journalists were told that the minister would now alight at Philippi station, not Langa.

Journalists later learned that further delays were expected for passengers due to a train accident. Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut of the SAPS said two women in their thirties died after being struck by a train close to Nyanga station.

When the minister and his security detail made their way out of the train at Philippi station, they were greeted with cheers and applause from some commuters.

From here, the officials, escorted by SAPS members with sirens blaring, drove through the traffic in a convoy towards Langa. At Langa station, members of the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union and the United Commuters Voice shared their grievances with the minister. Mbalula said that as a starting point, “stability” would be brought to the Prasa board. He planned to do this in the next three months.

Over the past 22 months, the Western Cape train network has experienced extensive vandalism and arson, resulting in at least R560-million rand in damages. There are currently 52 trains in service when 88 are needed to run efficiently. In November 2017, #UniteBehind leaked documents exposing theft within Prasa. Hundreds of millions of rand were stolen, possibly fuelling the collapse of the railway system. DM