There are many contenders for the most inept minister in the cabinet, but when it comes to the biggest hypocrite Blade Nzimande wins hands down.
Nzimande is not an ordinary member of the cabinet; he is the highest-ranking communist in it and so, one would imagine, is particularly alive to the concerns and needs of working class people. But when it comes to public rail services — a large part of Nzimande’s area of responsibility — he has shown little interest in the problems of rail commuters who, as the working class, are the constituency he believes he represents.
The Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) is in crisis. That crisis is evident every single day as commuters crush to get into overcrowded trains due to their summary cancellation and long delays, and people are killed riding on top of trains and between carriages or crossing tracks. Train drivers, who are seen as responsible for slow or late trains, are attacked and on occasion killed when they get out of the train to change ends and turn it around.
The cause of the crisis is failing rail infrastructure: faulty signals, broken rails and cable theft. The Rail Safety Regulator’s records show that over the past year there have been 1.2-million incidents in which train drivers have had to phone train controllers mid-journey to report faulty signals on tracks caused mostly by a lack of maintenance but also by cable theft and vandalism.
When the ANC wrested control of the state back from Jacob Zuma and his army of corrupt state capturers last February, corruption had settled in deep at Prasa. The agency’s chief engineer (who turned out to have faked his qualification) and its flamboyant CEO, Lucky Montana, had become famous for buying the too-tall trains from Spain, which were unable to run on local rails.
When Montana was eventually pushed out in 2015, internal mayhem ensued at Prasa. The SA Transport Workers Union sprang to his defence. Train coaches began to burn all over the country. During 2018 alone, more than 50 train carriages were torched.
Apart from brazen looting, scores of people had been wrongfully hired with no or fake qualifications. Employees from security guards to top executives were involved in large-scale theft of infrastructure. Like Eskom, from top to bottom, there were people who were in on the racket.
However, when Nzimande took charge extensive work had already been done to uncover corruption at Prasa. A public protector’s report — Derailed — had been available for nearly three years and a forensic report by legal firm Werksmans had been completed. Dozens of people and contracts were implicated.
Nzimande appointed an interim board and an interim CEO. As Prasa had not had a permanent CEO for four years this was a questionable decision. Even more questionable, however, was the person selected by the board to do the job, with Nzimande’s blessing.
Sibusiso Sithole — previously the city manager of eThekwini — was conspicuously lacking in rail experience. He also had a chequered financial past with several credit judgments against him, including an income tax default.
If the intention was to rescue Prasa, the choice was baffling. Apart from lacking expertise, it soon became clear that Sithole also lacked courage. Despite the two hefty volumes on corruption that sat on his desk, Sithole neither disciplined, inquired about nor removed anyone. Montana’s crew continued as before. Prasa remained derailed. Train burnings continued, signals and rails continued to fail, cables were still stolen, working people were late, were fired, had their pay and leave docked and died in accidents or while crossing tracks.
In February, after his position was advertised, Sithole finally resigned. His replacement, Nkosinathi Sishi — who also does not have much rail experience — has now begun a belated clean-up.
It was a little while after that that President Cyril Ramaphosa took his election roadshow for a meet-and-greet on a train, during which they spent two hours stranded in the middle of nowhere, stationary with no explanation.
The experience appears to have jolted Nzimande into action. Fourteen months after he was put in charge and only a few weeks before his term comes to an end, Nzimande has announced a high-level intervention, commissioning diagnostic reports and task teams to drive a programme to cut cancellations and delays.
It is a pathetic display of apathy and disregard for working people. But as Communist No 1, what’s the bet Nzimande will be in the next cabinet?
• Paton is writer at large.
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