Progress on the devolution of rail services is too slow, says the City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility Mayoral Committee Member Rob Quintas.
The national Department of Transport is dragging its heels on the devolution of rail, says Rob Quintas, head of transport in the City of Cape Town.
He says the steering committee set up by the national Department of Transport to discuss the devolution of rail to municipalities has only met once. The committee includes representatives of municipalities and provincial and national transport departments.
Quintas said the City was not satisfied with progress to date and “the lack of urgency” that the national department of transport had demonstrated. “We have never been invited to a meeting other than the initial inception meeting,” he said.
Quintas said the City was still waiting for the department’s draft National Devolution Strategy.
Spokesperson for the national department of transport, Collen Msibi, told GroundUp the draft National Devolution Strategy would be developed for public participation and “all stakeholders including the City of Cape Town be given adequate opportunity to make comments. The strategy would provide guidelines and procedures for municipalities and would ensure that there was a mechanism for financial sustainability.
“Key considerations will be taken into account to avoid mushrooming of state-owned enterprises in the rail space as a result of the devolution process,” said Msibi.
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce a clear deadline for the National Devolution Strategy report.
The National Rail Policy White Paper in 2022 first promised the delivery of a Devolution Strategy by 2023. Then in Parliament on 5 September 2023, the President promised the strategy would be concluded and approved by 2024.
Functional rail will save lower income families in Cape Town R932-million per year and sustain 51,000 jobs in the metro, according to a City of Cape Town Rail Feasibility Study.
Initially, the City said the national government’s failure to devolve rail might lead to a formal intergovernmental dispute. But Quintas this week said, “If we see commitment to urgency and working together, then no dispute will be necessary.”
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Flash
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”
Trouble Mittens
Fun South African Fact: The swimming pool vacuum cleaner is a South African invention.