16 May 2025: A presentation by Prasa to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament Standing Committee on Mobility today exposed the City of Cape Town’s alleged “plan” to take over management of the Metrorail system as theatrical bluster. The grandiose-sounding “Service Level Plan” between the City and Prasa that the Mayor of Cape Town announced with great fanfare six months ago, but never allowed anyone to see, was revealed at today’s presentation to contain no grand plan at all.
Instead, the document appears geared towards defending the City’s alleged non-compliance with transport legislation in litigation brought against the City and PRASA by civil society organisation, Unite Behind. The document has been shrouded in secrecy. It has never been published for public comment and is not readily available on any online platform for the public to even see it. Today’s presentation revealed the reason for the secrecy: It’s not actually a plan, at all.
PRASA and the City said they did not wish to present much detail, though they could not explain why not. They said just enough to make it clear that their plan is not of the nature of Service Level Plans envisaged by the National Land Transport Act, nor does it move the City any closer to managing of the rail service, as Mayor Hill-Lewis promised six months ago.
The Service Level Plan should address: Recovery of the historically successful rail network; future investment to expand the network; operational management of the service; strategic investments to leverage public land for development; and commuter rights and needs, including universal access for people living with disabilities. From what emerged today, Cape Town’s plan covers none of those bases.
It further emerged today that the agreement struck between the City and Prasa 10 years ago on the development of 22 projects to improve and expand the network had effectively fallen by the wayside. While that agreement would require updating, it was considerably more of a plan than what the City and Prasa could muster today.
The quality of its non-plan is a shocking dereliction of duty by the City of Cape Town. Planning for present and future public transport demands in a rapidly urbanising city should be more important to the Mayor than media events and PR.
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