To all the regular bus users who had to hustle and scramble to find alternative means of transport to get to work this week, Munier feels for you.
The national bus drivers’ strike has hit everyone hard.
Not just bus commuters, but taxi and train users, who’ve had to maak plek for all the additional passengers.
A bus strike also means more cars on the road, and extra traffic congestion.
Eish, early mornings, long waits and late nights for all.
Munier hopes the bosses will be understanding.
And, inshallah, let’s cross fingers that the unions and management can come to a wage agreement as soon as possible.
Speaking of public transport woes, Munier was shocked to read about the sad state of affairs at Metrofail this week.
It looks like commuters have finally had it with the swak service and have voted with their wallets.
In parliament this week, Prasa chief strategy officer, Sipho Sithole, said the number of passenger trips for paying customers went from 633 million to just 372 million in the 2016/17 financial year.
And customer satisfaction is at 59.4%, the “lowest in the history of the organisation”.
To remedy the problem, Prasa intends to reduce the number of train delays.
This would be done through making sure out-of-service coaches due to vandalism and maintenance are refurbished at a faster rate through using private contractors.
MPs, however, rubbished this plan as Prasa’s estimated cash shortfall over the next three years is expected to be around R6.7 billion.
So the big question is: where is the money going to come from?
To run an efficient train service in Cape Town, Metrorail is said to require 88 train sets, but is currently operating with only 68.
This has resulted in only four out of 10 trains arriving on time. And 11% are cancelled.
The City of Cape Town has offered to take over the trains in the city.
Will they be able to do a better a job?
It’s hard to say, but anything’s got to be better than the disaster at Prasa, right?
Munier reckons desperate times call for desperate measures, and now’s a good time as any to farm out the job to outside help.
Any takers? Kanala?