DA welcomes Cape Town's announcement of first steps towards taking over the city rail network

28 April 2022

In Cape Town’s city council today, Executive Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, announced that the first steps will be taken for the devolution of the metropolitan rail function to the metro. National Treasury has given the go-ahead for the city to commence with a detailed feasibility study that will put this crucial transition into motion.

The railway system in South Africa is a national government competency and the metro railway system in Cape Town has fallen in decay and has not been functioning optimally for many years. This has put tremendous strain on Capetonians since residents in Cape Town are desperately reliant on the metro rail network for commuting to and from work.

The DA in the Western Cape has promised in the 2019 election campaign that we would fight hard for the devolution of this function and that our railway system would perform better if it is locally managed. And Treasury’s green light for the feasibility study is a recognition of the DA-led City of Cape Town’s capability of managing the rail network successfully.

Therefore, we are delighted at this announcement and look forward to the work that will soon begin to get our trains up and running again, so that residents are presented with alternative transport.

We wish to thank the Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, and his team, together with Mayco member for Urban Mobility, Rob Quintas, for the hard work they have done to bring better services to the people.

Issued by Tertuis Simmers, DA Interim Provincial Leader, Western Cape, 28 April 2022