Signs are that the transport sector is on the path to recovery.
The Public Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is hoping for a court order in April that will ensure the return of 23 of the Spanish locomotives it bought for R2.6-billion in a deal that became emblematic of state capture and was later set aside by the high court.
Prasa chairman Leonard Ramatlakane told Parliament’s watchdog standing committee on public accounts, that the struggling rail entity was powerless to speed up the process, because it was in the hands of the liquidator of intermediary Swifambo.
“It is a matter that is led by the liquidator himself, Prasa can’t… our hands are tied,” Ramatlakane said.
However, he added, the liquidator, Hans Muller, has given the company the go-ahead to commission six of the locomotives that were in the country so that they could be put to service as soon as the high court issued the order.
Ramatlakane was responding to the frustration voiced by Democratic Alliance MP Alf Lees who said it was now five months since Ramatlakane and a technical and managerial team from Prasa visited Spain to engage with Staddler, which now owns Vossloh Espana, the company contracted to supply the locomotives in a joint venture with Swifambo.
Lees said expected Prasa to step up pressure on the liquidator to finalise the matter and save the taxpayer leasing fees, which translated into an excessive fare price for commuters.
Ramatlakane said an agreement was reached that whatever modifications were needed to enable the trains to run on local railway infrastructure could be effected.
“The only thing that is standing between us and that agreement is going to court or getting a date from the judge president when this matter can come to court and the commercial agreement can then be finalised.
“We have given them six months: we want the locos back in South Africa in six months so that we can then stop leasing locos,” Ramatlakane said.
The aim was to ensure Prasa got something in return for the money it lost on procuring locomotives that were too tall to run on local railways, as was discovered after 13 were delivered.
“This approach was going to bring us R1.1-billion in terms of the locos we are going to get back. We believe this is the best way to recover some of this and then be able to utilise the locos in the country itself.”
Ramatlakane said the liquidator had advised Prasa that this option was far more viable than attempting to sell the locomotives after six fetched a mere R65-million.
Prasa attempted to sue Swifambo for R2.6-billion plus interest after the Johannesburg high court set aside the contract former government official Auswell Mashaba’s company had secured just four months after it was established in 2012, despite submitting a tax clearance certificate with no VAT number and having no formal contract with Vossloh Espana during the bid process.
Last year liquidator Muller told the Zondo commission probing state capture that negotiations were underway to refurbish the locomotives to ensure Prasa received some value for about half the money it spent.
Ramatlakane told the Mail & Guardian there were currently seven of the locomotives “at the harbour in Spain ready for shipment” and six in the country ready for commissioning.
He said a further five hybrid diesel and electric locomotives had been completed at the factory in Spain and a further five would be produced once the agreement was finalised.
The agreement would also include two years of capital spares and two years of maintenance service in South Africa, the training of ten drivers in South Africa and in Spain, and delivery to Prasa’s chosen port of entry, he added.
In a wide-ranging briefing on the company’s annual report, Ramatlakhane again told MPs that efforts to reopen Cape Town’s commuter rail central line were still hamstrung by difficulties in relocating squatters living on the railway line in Langa and Philippi.
“The challenge is to get access to land, because it is not in our mandate,” Ramatlakane said.
He recalled that Prasa was compelled by a court order to find suitable, serviced alternative land for those people who have set up home on the line, but after plans were made to relocate them to Kuils River and Blackheath residents of these areas objected.
“They are saying they do not want them, because they will be coming with shacks, not with houses,” Ramatlakane said.
The line, which runs from Cape Town central to Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain has not been in operation for four years as a result of vandalism.
Ramatlakane said Prasa was trying to recover from years of vandalism to infrastructure that had cost it about R4 billion. It was in the process of adding 3 100 security personnel to the complement of 2 000 already on the job. This would bring the number of security personnel working at Prasa to half the original number of 10 000 the rail agency had employed before the function was outsourced in contracts now subject to court wrangling.
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