A task team finding alternatives to retrenchments at the Passenger Rail Agency of SA is making steady progress, having already cut the number of affected employees by half.
The task team of Prasa and labour representatives is due to update transport minister Barbara Creecy soon.
She convened the team after an outcry by the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) and the United National Transport Union (Untu), the two largest unions at Prasa, at plans to retrench more than 600 workers.
Satawu general secretary Jack Mazibuko hailed Creecy’s intervention “considering SA’s high level of unemployment”.
“She forced parties to come to the table, and that’s where the task team was established. We have reduced the number from about 600 … to about 227 who might be affected by retrenchments,” Mazibuko said.
“We did not support the retrenchments. The parties are still engaging. We have given the task team a mandate to come up with solutions and we are confident we will find amicable solutions [for] the 227.”
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana said in his budget speech in February that the R5.8bn allocated to Prasa was part of the government’s efforts to modernise the rail operator’s fleet and improve commuter rail services.
Prasa, which has a track network of more than 2,000km, has historically been plagued by ageing infrastructure, vandalism, unreliability and ineffectiveness, fraud, corruption and safety concerns.
The entity launched its general overhaul programme in 2022 at a cost of R7.5bn, of which R3.48bn had been spent by end-March 2025.
The overhaul was established to refurbish and extend the service life of Prasa’s legacy rolling stock fleet — the older Metrorail coaches and mainline passenger services locomotives that serve millions of commuters in South Africa’s metropolitan regions. - Business Day