SCORE: C

Minister Barbara Creecy succeeded the inept Sindisiwe Chikunga when the seventh administration began in July. The baggage she has to sort out is plentiful. The department’s reintroduction of the country’s passenger rail system has been rocked by a potential R5.1 billion lawsuit for debts not paid to a service provider. The contractor had revamped more than 140 train stations that were subsequently vandalised in 2019 after the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa “negligently” cancelled security contracts. All of these shenanigans are recorded in a Pretoria high court-ordered engineering report, which outlined how the state-owned entity allowed for the country’s rail infrastructure to crumble, causing passenger numbers to drop from a high of 550 million a year in 2014-15 to a projected paltry 186 million in 2026-27, according to its briefing to the transport parliamentary committee in October. Creecy has adopted the ambitious aim of creating an integrated transport service, with rail being integral in removing vehicles from the road and assisting the working class with high travel costs.