Parliament, Tuesday, 22 October 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Transport remains concerned about possibility of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) and the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) falling into liquidity challenges if the funding model and legislative impediments are not resolved.
The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Donald Selamolela, said the committee is happy with the performance of the broader portfolio, but issues of audits, governance and vacancies remained elusive in some of the entities.
“These jewels of infrastructure projects give meaning to service delivery for our people and cannot afford to limp in any way or form. Vandalism of the infrastructure remains more pronounced, particularly in rail. On roads, we suffered massively during the recent floods that hit the KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape, and parts of Gauteng and the North West,” Mr Selamolela said.
Mr Selamolela said the impact of these infrastructure challenges affected service delivery and he called on entities to move with speed on repairs, so as to avoid infrastructure backlogs.
The committee adopted its budgetary review and recommendations report on Tuesday and called on the department to consider developing a comprehensive funding plan to replicate in all transport entities.
Mr Selamolela said PRASA needs to report to the committee regularly on progress achieved to prepare the entity to serve as a nucleus of the Transport Economic Regulation, once signed into law. “The effectiveness we want to see at PRASA is the same as with SANRAL. These entities should co-operate with the department on funding plans to ensure financial sustainability,” he said.
“Roads affected by floods, especially in KZN, require urgent intervention and tenders that are being stalled should be reported on quarterly. The same reporting approach should be extended to strategies that will be implemented to improve the financial health status,” Mr Selamolela said.
South Africa cannot afford to sit with uncertainty around SANRAL’s ability to fund future obligations, he noted. SANRAL should also reduce instances where liabilities exceed the value of its total assets.
The portfolio committees’ budgetary review and recommendations reports are an important mid-year tool used to demonstrate the financial need and performance of government departments and their entities. Each report is based on the government department’s annual performance plans and yearly audits conducted by the Auditor-General (AG).
The committee also recommended that all entities address supply chain management processes and reskill employees on all finance-related functions.
“The entities must each submit a comprehensive action plan to address the AG’s findings and recommendations to the committee by the end of January 2025, and entities must meet with the AG on accounting standards used to audit performance,” Mr Selamolela concluded.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, MR DONALD SELAMOLELA.
For media inquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Mr Sibongile Maputi
Cell: 081 052 6060
Email: smaputi@parliament.gov.za
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