SATAWU WELCOMES THE DISSOLUTION OF THE PRASA BOARD
9 March, 2017
South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU) welcomes the dissolution of the board of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA).
SATAWU objected to its installation from the onset, questioning its ability to advance the developmental agenda of the agency and to identify with challenges of the ordinary people who patronise Prasa’s services daily. Sadly, we were right.
Under the dissolved board, trains were rarely on time or did not arrive at all resulting in workers reporting for work late, rising the ire of employers. Liquidity plummeted. Targets on the modernisation project fell by the wayside. Worse still, the safety of commuters appeared to have been deprioritised as accidents and petty crimes such as muggings escalated under the board’s watch. Attacks on train drivers also spiked during this time.
From the start the board appeared to have been preoccupied with the day to day running of the agency, neglecting its oversight role. Contracts that were meant to improve Prasa’s operations were terminated, eventually leading to the derailment of the overall performance of the organisation.