Johannesburg - President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to demand answers from senior officials of Prasa following his more than three-hour metro trip from Mabopane to Pretoria on Monday morning.
Ramaphosa was on a campaign trip for his party which included some of his fellow party leaders boarding metro rail trains from various train station in surrounding suburbs and heading to Pretoria for a mini rally to lobby train commuters to vote for the ANC.
Initially, Ramaphosa was due to board the train at Mabopane Station at about 6:30 am but had to wait for an hour. He eventually boarded 07:30 - only to personally experience the frustration thousands of the commuters suffered on a daily basis including late arrivals.
While ANC members were waiting outside Bosman Station for Ramaphosa, various commuters complained about the late arrivals of train. Others risked their lives to ensure that they boarded trains from various townships such as Mamelodi and surrounding area, to arrive on time in Pretoria.
But those working in Mabopane, Rosslyn and Pretoria North were no so lucky. Most of them arrived at the Bosman Station just after 5am to catch a train to Mabopane travelling in the opposite direction to that of Ramaphosa, Gauteng Premier David Makhura. Unfortunately, they too had to wait for long hours to get to their destination.
After his more than three-hour trip, Ramaphosa said he was grateful that he had experience the troubles people experience in these trains and promised that the ANC was going to act on the poor transport system very soon.
Video:@MYANC /Twitter
Video: @MYANC/Twitter
“Some of these commuters are students. Their transport is not ideal,” Ramaphosa said.
Sipho Sithole from Prasa said the reason for the delay was due to people throwing a brick at a train which then struck the driver.
"The train then blocked all the other trains coming from behind."