Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says the City is gearing up to launch an intergovernmental dispute over the devolution of the passenger rail service in the metro.
Also read: Ramaphosa slams CoCT’s transport devolution, claims secessionism
News24 reports that the City has been pursuing the management of rail services and wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to confirm whether the Cabinet-approved White Paper on National Rail Policy, which is aimed at devolving rail to capable metros, still stands.
The City had set a deadline for Ramaphosa to respond to their request to form a committee on devolution, or it would declare an intergovernmental dispute. The president reportedly missed this deadline.
‘For these reasons, we are now briefing our lawyers to launch an intergovernmental dispute mediation process,’ says Hill-Lewis. ‘Under Section 42 of the Intergovernmental Framework Relations Act, a mediation committee will need to ‘promptly’ be convened to set the terms of the dispute.’
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According to Hill-Lewis, the City has not been able to secure a working committee on devolution despite the president’s previous commitment to respond to their requests. ‘We have made this simple request to both previous and current transport ministers, and most recently to the president on 16 June, but to no avail.’
The move follows scathing remarks by President Ramaphosa on Tuesday, who labelled talks of devolving powers from the national government as ‘secessionist’. According to News24, the president said this during a National Assembly question-and-answer session.
John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), had asked the president whether he would make a policy decision to support and expedite the devolution of passenger rail to competent metros in light of the recent taxi strike.
In response, Ramaphosa said the White Paper on National Rail Policy, which was approved by the Cabinet last March, specified certain implementations, priorities and time frames in the devolution of passenger rail. ‘There are certain short-term objectives to be achieved by 2024. The development of a devolution strategy is one of the short-term interventions which is to be completed by 2024.’
He added that those who called for devolution wanted to be secessionist. ‘Those who call for this devolution are essentially saying, we want to be separate, we want to be secessionist, we want to be completely different.’
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Also read:
The Presidency dismisses Cape Town mayor’s rail devolution push
Picture: Metrorail WC / Facebook
