Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is accusing President Cyril Ramaphosa and the African National Congress (ANC) of intentionally ignoring their request for the city to manage passenger rail services.
They lodged their request in May last year.
But since then, the city claims that Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has still not responded.
Hill-Lewis said that he was not happy that the minister was recently quoted as saying that rail services could not be given to metros because they’re unstable.
“There seems to be a move afoot by some members of the Cabinet to get the national Cabinet and President Ramaphosa to do a U-turn or a reversal on the Cabinet’s commitment of early in 2022 to devolve the rail function to allow competent metros to manage the rail function,” Hill-Lewis said.
The mayor added that a policy for capable metros to run passengers rail services was established in May last year.
“Now, ostensibly this reversal is justified on the basis that not all metros are capable, that’s entirely an obvious point. That’s why the Cabinet decision said that it should be devolved to capable metros. But where there are capable metros, like in Cape Town, we are ready to take over the management of the almost collapsed rail function,” the mayor said.
The publication has reached out to the Presidency for comment.
-EWN
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