On 9 March, as part of the presidential Siyahlola service delivery monitoring programme, President Zuma carried out unannounced visits to public transport facilities around Pretoria to assess performance and the state of infrastructure.

His day began with an inspection at Metrorail’s Denneboom station, which serves Mamelodi, a vast township east of the capital. Residents told the president they were constantly late for work due to trains running behind time and said safety and security were serious problems. Women, schoolchildren and senior citizens were the most vulnerable to criminal activities “that occur daily in the trains”. They urged the President to act because numerous community protests about these shortcomings had resulted in no improvement. President Zuma promised to attend to the complaints, saying: “I will engage relevant government departments and institutions to swiftly deal with these problems so that more trains are provided to ensure that the situation is addressed immediately”. He told journalists: “During this Siyahlola programme, I have personally identified some serious challenges concerning our public transport. I am more concerned with the railway transport system because I have personally experienced and witnessed the challenges faced by our people and indeed a lot needs to be done to improve our railway transport system”.

(source: http://www.railwaysafrica.com/ – Photo: Bertramz)