Prasa overhaul plan to be implemented in phases

The cash-strapped entity’s newly appointed administrator held a meeting with community leaders in Soshanguve on Wednesday to share his to resolve the crisis at Prasa.

READ: Knights Train Station damage ‘won’t be fixed overnight’, warns Prasa

In early December, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula dissolved Prasa's interim board and placed the entity under administration.

Mpondo admitted the agency is “broken”.

"The problems that we need to solve are not problems that will be solved overnight. We would be lying to you."

He said community members raised a number of issues, including safety for the communicators.

"I'm not going to pretend to be the spokesperson for the stakeholders but naturally there is a lot of frustration. Two months without service and we still need to recover, the issue of communication was paramount.

"Commuters would like us to communicate with them a bit more. Also when the line is operating the issue around safety came up quite strongly. They lastly raised that when we commit or make a statement most of the time we don't see it through.

“So there's an issue around the speed of implementation and getting things done.”

Mpondo said the plan is to get the entity back on track in the next 12 months.

"We've structured our intervention into three periods of execution. The first three months we're restoring stability and order into the organisation. Then the six months between now and June we're focusing on accelerating execution.

 "Over the 12 months we're talking about commissioning projects which hopefully by then will be completed. We'll create business continuity and handover a stable business to the minister.”