One of our recovery success stories which the ANC believes is encouraging is that Prasa seems to be on track to restore commuter rail services in major urban areas. New Prasa management are getting to grips with the enormous task after years of overwhelming neglect and criminality ruined the railways.

With the appointment of CEO of Prasa, Hishaam Emeran, and going by the evidence on the ground, with his team literally rebuilding the railway brick by brick, rail by rail and wire by wire, we should see a largely restored network within five years. By June 2024, 31 of Prasa’s 40 corridors were operational, with passenger journeys rising to 40-million in the 2023/2024 financial year, up from 15million in the previous period. Emeran focussed on addressing passenger safety on trains and at stations, on the platforms as well as in the vicinity, and securing physical assets. Alongside this focus was an incremental approach to restoring the infrastructure, rather than attempting to reopen entire corridors.

A crucial component of infrastructure is the overhead electrical traction equipment, known as OHTE, and the copper in the OHTE has been replaced in the new equipment with steel and aluminium constituting a 90% reduction in copper content and so largely removing the incentive for theft, which bad news for criminal syndicates.

The ANC sees these positive developments as reassuring and we look forward to effective and enhanced rail infrastructure.