GroundUp reports that according to Rob Quintas, head of transport in the City of Cape Town, the national Department of Transport (DoT) is dragging its heels on the devolution of rail.

He says the steering committee set up by the DoT to discuss the devolution of rail to municipalities has only met once. The committee includes representatives of municipalities and provincial and national transport departments. Quintas said the City was not satisfied with progress to date and “the lack of urgency” that the DoT had demonstrated. “We have never been invited to a meeting other than the initial inception meeting,” he claimed. Quintas also said the City was still waiting for the department’s draft National Devolution Strategy. Spokesperson for the DoT, Collen Msibi, advised that the draft National Devolution Strategy would be developed for public participation and “all stakeholders including the City of Cape Town be given adequate opportunity to make comments.” Functional rail will save lower income families in Cape Town R932-million per year and sustain 51,000 jobs in the metro, according to a City of Cape Town Rail Feasibility Study. Initially, the City said the national government’s failure to devolve rail might lead to a formal intergovernmental dispute. But Quintas this week indicated: “If we see commitment to urgency and working together, then no dispute will be necessary.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sandiso Phaliso at GroundUp

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