Radio Islam International – 2019/03/19

President Cyril Ramaphosa has undertaken to improve the provision of transport facilities following his three-hour trip in a Metrorail – which should have lasted him around 45 minutes.

Yesterday, Ramaphosa conceded his trip from Mabopane to Pretoria CBD had made it more urgent for him and his party to deal with transport needs of South Africans, especially the poor.

Ramaphosa and Gauteng Premier David Makhura received eye-witness accounts of the troubles of train delays endured by commuters in the country. Both also saw how the trains were overcrowded and how some of the commuters risked their lives through illegally crossing the railway lines.

Others jumped off while the train was in motion.

Ordinarily, Ramaphosa was supposed to spend just under one hour, at least 45 minutes in that train, but spent more two than two hours in it.

The delay denied Ramaphosa the opportunity to gauge the number of people using trains in Pretoria to the CBD, including the numbers which would have allowed the governing ANC, especially its Tshwane region, to know where to invest its election machinery.

After his trip, Ramaphosa said he was grateful that he had experienced the troubles people experienced in these trains and promised that the ANC was going to act on the poor transport system very soon.

“Some of these commuters are students. Their transport is not ideal,” Ramaphosa said.

Sipho Sithole, from Prasa, said the delay was due to people throwing a brick at a train which struck the driver.