PRETORIA, Gauteng — The United National Transport Union (UNTU) is reporting measurable progress in mitigating PRASA retrenchments, with Acting General Secretary Atenkosi Plaatjie confirming that a ministerial task team has successfully reduced the initial wave of threatened job cuts. Through strategic internal placements, asset transfer discussions, and early retirement options, the union and the Department of Transport are actively working to shield workers from the fallout of the state-owned rail operator’s restructuring efforts.
Initially, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) announced plans to retrench 580 Metrorail Long Distance Passenger Services (MLPS) employees. The union opposed the move from the outset, eventually approaching the labor court for an urgent interdict after consultations through the CCMA stalled. Plaatjie noted that the union lacked critical information regarding the entity’s internal structure and open vacancies, prompting legal intervention. This pressure led Transport Minister Barbara Creecy to establish a ministerial task team, which has since yielded tangible results.
By conducting a thorough age and skills analysis, the task team successfully facilitated early retirement for 43 employees. Furthermore, 102 workers were successfully matched and placed into existing, unfilled vacancies within PRASA. Plaatjie emphasized that the union’s primary goal was to force the entity to utilize its own internal resources before resorting to job cuts.
Despite this progress, approximately 200 employees remain in a vulnerable position. This group consists of 280 protection service (security) officers and 227 excess staff members for whom no internal PRASA vacancies could be found. To resolve this, the Department of Transport has made formal undertakings to negotiate external placements. The department is currently engaging with Transnet to absorb the security personnel, capitalizing on the freight company’s ongoing need for robust security measures. Simultaneously, the department is in talks with private Train Operating Companies (TOCs) to employ the excess staff, holding these private partners to their original mandate of driving job creation in the South African economy.
When pressed on the financial mechanics of the restructuring, Plaatjie stated that PRASA has not disclosed specific cost-saving targets to the task team. While alternative placement strategies and early retirements carry their own financial implications for the rail operator, the union maintains that its mandate is strictly job preservation. Any detailed financial disclosures regarding the restructuring budget remain the responsibility of the entity to share with the public.
Addressing the broader operational crisis, Plaatjie warned that the current financial strain must not result in workers bearing the brunt of historical mismanagement. He pointed to systemic corruption, notably the scandal involving the procurement of trains that were physically “too tall for our rail,” as a primary catalyst for the long-distance service collapse. Additionally, he highlighted the ill-timed cancellation of security contracts just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which directly enabled brazen cable theft and severe infrastructure vandalism.
UNTU remains firm that accountability must be directed at the executive level. Plaatjie concluded that retrenchments cannot be weaponized as “consequence management” for strategic blunders and corruption that the workforce did not create, as the union continues to await final outcomes on the external placement negotiations.
