Prasa losses up to more than R750 million as a result of COVID-19 lockdown

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has reported a total loss of revenue of more than R750 million for the year as a result of the national lockdown.

Prasa has indicated that almost R200 million in revenue was lost in just one month, from April to May 2020. It says the lockdown has placed added pressure on the company’s already strained financial position.

Prasa terminated all its services during Level 5 and Level 4 of the lockdown period in line with government’s regulations.

Addressing a virtual media briefing on Thursday morning, administrator Bongisizwe Mpondo says that despite the challenges Prasa is working with other State-Owned Enterprises to improve services provided.

“So, those worth the mention here are the following; Transnet, historically there have been a number of unsolved issues between Transnet and Prasa since the separation of passenger services from Transnet. This has had a detrimental effect on both parties as a result. Recently, though the CEO of Transnet and I met and we have set up a number of workstreams that are focusing on mutually-agreed business-critical areas. And these areas are as follows; technical, operations, property and assets, manufacturing which is very as well as commercial.”

Mpondo says they are working with Eskom to deal with issues including cable theft.

“Eskom plays very important roles in our economy and one of those is to provide energy to our trains. Furthermore, there are a number of common areas that require us to join forces such as cable theft as well as technical assessments and monitoring and our substations. The CEO of Eskom and I have agreed to work together and have set-up a number of workstreams that will enhance our synergies. With regard to enhancing our security capability, we have engaged the South African Police Service with the purpose of strengthening our relationship.”

Transport regulations under Level 4 lockdown: 

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Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)