Commuters demand Peters be axed

About 500 commuters, under the banner of the South African Commuters Organisation (Saco), thronged Pretoria’s streets on Tuesday, calling for President Jacob Zuma to get rid of Transport Minister Dipuo Peters. This comes two weeks after South African Transport and Allied Workers Union members handed over a memorandum to the office of Peters, calling on her to step down. Joined by leaders of Satawu, Saco members marched to the Union Buildings to deliver a memorandum with their grievances to the Presidency. Marchers accused Peters of having colluded with Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) board chairman Popo Molefe to oust the former agency’s chief executive officer, Lucky Montana. They want Zuma’s office to take over the administration of Prasa and disband the agency’s board headed by Molefe.

Members of Saco, including cleaners, informal traders and commuters, moved from Bosman station to the president’s office. Satawu deputy secretary-general Freedom Sotshantsha reiterated the call to get rid of e-tolls and blamed Peters for their installation. He said Montana had, prior to his axing, promised to give Prasa workers 10 percent of the budget allocated to the agency. Marchers applauded Montana for championing the initiative to create jobs for Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans Association members during his tenure. He accused Molefe of being close to “a Congress of the People leader” and of wanting to finance the party’s political activities with Prasa’s budget. “If Lucky is not brought back, we will make Prasa ungovernable,” he said. He also questioned the timing of the public protector’s report on investigations into maladministration related to financial mismanagement, tender irregularities and appointment irregularities at Prasa. The report is scheduled to be released on August 3. He claimed Molefe was already in possession of the report despite the fact that it is only due to be released on Monday.

Saco president Stephen Sangweni threatened that if their demands were not addressed soon he would mobilise union members to make Prasa ungovernable. He appealed to commuters not to buy the monthly train tickets for August to express their dissatisfaction with events at Prasa. Asked to comment on whether the statement condoned lawlessness, he said: “We believe that we wouldn’t have gained our freedom from apartheid in South Africa if we were abiding by the law during the Struggle.” He said commuters would use trains for free as part of “phase two of the mass action”. He said the mass action would culminate into a boycott of trains. An official from the Presidency, Shemi Mashweu, received the memorandum on behalf of Zuma’s office, promising it would eventually be handed over to the president. He said: “This memorandum is very important to the president’s office and we will look into its contents and engage other relevant stakeholders.”