Agang SA Calls for End to Delays to Moloto Rail Corridor Project after another 29 Die
Johannesburg; 12 November 2013: Agang SA extends its heart-felt condolences to the families of the 29 people who died in yet another horrific accident on Moloto Road and wishes the injured speedy recovery.
To appreciate the extend of devastation such accidents cause, one needs to think of the number of families left grieving, the many children left without parents and the hardship that lies ahead for them following the loss of breadwinners.
We have been here before. Such horrific accidents, involving trucks and buses, have become a common feature on this deadly road. This begs the questions: how many more lives have to be lost before the government take decisive action to put an end to the carnage once and for all?
The time for so-called high-level investigations, as announced by transport minister Dipuo Peters, has long gone. Everything that's wrong with this road has been well-documented for ages - including narrowness, potholes, congestion and over-speeding.
Agang SA calls for a multi-faceted solution to the Moloto Road problem, one which also addresses the problem posed by Apartheid geography - whereby mostly poor, Black people have to travel long distances to go to work.
The staggering truth about this is that, in most instances, the government spends more money on subsidising bus transport for the people commuting from the western regions of Mpumalanga, to work in Pretoria than what they actually earn in wages.
The solution lies in the speedy implementation of the much-delayed Moloto Rail Corridor, the 130 km-long mass transports system, which has been touted by government itself as a model providing modern technology and a multimodal integrated transport system to commuters between the western regions of Mpumalanga and Gauteng.
The project was envisaged as a catalyst for new economic development, bringing much-needed local economic development to the in rural areas. It would also cut down long commuting times as well as minimise traffic accidents and the resultant deaths and injuries.
The department of transport said the R8 billion to R10, 5 billion public private partnership project was in the feasibility stage in 2011. Financial feasibility studies found that the project, which included redirecting subsidies from buses, was bankable.
Statement issued by Moeketsi Mosola, Agang SA Political Director, November 12 2013
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