South African Activists Take Rail Agency, Minister to Court

The Minister of Transport and Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) are being taken to court by civil society organisation #UniteBehind. The organisation wants the court to compel PRASA to hand over the running and management of the rail system in Cape Town to the City, GroundUp reports.

Instead of assisting in creating a service level plan leading to the devolution of the rail service to the City, #UniteBehind argues that PRASA and the transport minister have "compromised and impeded" the City's "ability and rights to exercise its powers and perform its functions" when it comes to managing public transport in Cape Town.

In May 2023, Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga refused plans by the City of Cape Town to take over the passenger rail service in the city. PRASA has no intention of devolving the railway services, Chikunga said at the time.

The city's Central line remains troubled. GroundUp reports that it emerged during a meeting of Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on Wednesday that nearly 4,000 households still occupy PRASA-owned land in Philippi and Khayelitsha.

Shacks were built on the rail reserve and rail line in Langa, Phillipi, and Khayelitsha during the Covid lockdown in 2020. Trains had already stopped running on the Central Line in October 2019 due to theft and vandalism. The situation was exacerbated by PRASA's cancellation of security contracts. Currently, the line has been reinstated as far as Nyanga, after over 1,250 households occupying the line at Langa were temporarily relocated.