Now To Get Back On Track

Bongisizwe Mpondo has the unenviable job of having to turn around the fortunes of ailing SOE Prasa

- Gabisile Ngcobo

TRASHED trains, last-minute cancellations, lax security, appalling vandalism and catastrophic cash-flow problems.

The list of issues plaguing the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) goes on and on – and the people who rely on its services to get to work every day are fed up, to say the least.

The numbers speak for themselves: in 10 years the number of passengers using trains daily has dropped from 3,8 million to 387 530 – and there’s one person who can’t blame them.

“It’s a national crisis,” says Bongisizwe Mpondo, the man who has what must be one of the most unenviable jobs in South Africa: digging Prasa out of the deep, dark hole it’s in.

He’s been given 12 months to turn the entity around and he acknowledges it’s no task for the fainthearted. The job consumes his every waking moment and haunts his dreams.

“There are times you wake in the middle of the night and jot down some ideas and fire offa few emails,” he says. “It disrupts your normal patterns and you need to settle into a new mode of doing things. It’s a hectic lifestyle.”

Bongisizwe (45) was appointed Prasa administrator by transport minister Fikile Mbalula in December last year and is essentially the accounting authority and CEO in one.

His appointment came after Mbalula showed the Prasa board the door, fired acting CEO Nkosinathi Sishi and put the ailing state-owned enterprise under administration.

Bongisizwe hit the ground running. Just three months into his new job he’s roped in experts to be part of his technical advisory team. Among them are hotshots in finance, supply chain management, communications, governance and engineering and they all have their work cut out for them, he says.