Why is so much effort going into saving the Gautrain?
12 January 2024 - 17:05
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The current shambles at PioTrans, one of Johannesburg’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) operators, has for been a disaster waiting to happen for 15 years.
As early as 2009 I warned the-then MMC for transport, Rehana Moosajee, that the BRT was simply not going to work. Business rescue practitioners should now be sharpening their pencils for an ongoing round of collapses that will begin in the next year or so as the various BRT schemes countrywide start to come up for renewal.
In addition to BRT, there are a number of underperforming candidates for business rescue countrywide. They include Gautrain, Prasa and municipal Metrobus operators such as Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and eThekwini. Then there are dozens of limited-liability bus companies operating services under contract with provinces and municipalities all over SA.
Every one of these depends on financial support from one or more of the three different levels of government, all of which continue to display a frightening level of indifference and incompetence in planning and monitoring public transport properly.
But here’s a strange thing — no-one seems to have noticed that the Gautrain, the mother of all loss-making transport operators, has been carefully planning ahead for March 27 2026, when its concession agreement expires. To ensure that its “operation remains uninterrupted” after that date, a “multidisciplinary team of transaction advisers” has been appointed.
The team includes the national department of transport, the Gauteng department of transport, the National Treasury, a mysterious “Transport Authority for Gauteng”, the Gauteng provincial treasury and others. Feasibility studies are under way, all “in accordance with” various laws and “Treasury Regulation 16”, among many others. More than R11bn has been set aside to keep this bogus scheme on the rails until 2026. It won’t carry more than 10-million passengers a year, which translates to a loss of R275 per passenger.
Why is so much effort going into saving the Gautrain while buses, taxis and their passengers experience chaotic conditions all over SA? Is the minister of transport or minister of finance actually aware of the existence of this Gautrain rescue team? If so, is there a competent and independent firm of lawyers willing to step up to the plate and demand answers from them? Why is “Treasury Regulation 16” not being applied everywhere?
My next prediction, based on the inability of South Africans to apply their minds properly to public transport issues, is that there will be no good outcome any time soon.
Vaughan Mostert Northgate
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Shambles at PioTrans
Why is so much effort going into saving the Gautrain?
The current shambles at PioTrans, one of Johannesburg’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) operators, has for been a disaster waiting to happen for 15 years.
As early as 2009 I warned the-then MMC for transport, Rehana Moosajee, that the BRT was simply not going to work. Business rescue practitioners should now be sharpening their pencils for an ongoing round of collapses that will begin in the next year or so as the various BRT schemes countrywide start to come up for renewal.
In addition to BRT, there are a number of underperforming candidates for business rescue countrywide. They include Gautrain, Prasa and municipal Metrobus operators such as Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and eThekwini. Then there are dozens of limited-liability bus companies operating services under contract with provinces and municipalities all over SA.
Every one of these depends on financial support from one or more of the three different levels of government, all of which continue to display a frightening level of indifference and incompetence in planning and monitoring public transport properly.
But here’s a strange thing — no-one seems to have noticed that the Gautrain, the mother of all loss-making transport operators, has been carefully planning ahead for March 27 2026, when its concession agreement expires. To ensure that its “operation remains uninterrupted” after that date, a “multidisciplinary team of transaction advisers” has been appointed.
The team includes the national department of transport, the Gauteng department of transport, the National Treasury, a mysterious “Transport Authority for Gauteng”, the Gauteng provincial treasury and others. Feasibility studies are under way, all “in accordance with” various laws and “Treasury Regulation 16”, among many others. More than R11bn has been set aside to keep this bogus scheme on the rails until 2026. It won’t carry more than 10-million passengers a year, which translates to a loss of R275 per passenger.
Why is so much effort going into saving the Gautrain while buses, taxis and their passengers experience chaotic conditions all over SA? Is the minister of transport or minister of finance actually aware of the existence of this Gautrain rescue team? If so, is there a competent and independent firm of lawyers willing to step up to the plate and demand answers from them? Why is “Treasury Regulation 16” not being applied everywhere?
My next prediction, based on the inability of South Africans to apply their minds properly to public transport issues, is that there will be no good outcome any time soon.
Vaughan Mostert
Northgate
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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