Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) in the Western Cape has appealed to its employees to compromise and work without expecting payment in order to save the organisation from collapsing.
Prasa Western Cape acting regional manager Raymond Meseko told workers through an internal communique on Thursday that the company was facing financial challenges.
“I appeal to all of you to go beyond the extra mile - it means willingness to do not only your own work but to assist with revenue collection or to work longer hours without expecting payment or time in return.
“The time has come for every employee to pledge all for us to stand united against a common enemy of depleted coffers - it is up to us to help save the organisation,” he said.
Maseko said Prasa was working on solving the salary payment postponement.
Maseko also announced that the entire network of passenger trains in Western Cape had been suspended after Eskom had cut power supply.
It has been reported that Eskom made a decision in reaction to Prasa’s failure to pay electricity bills.
“We are doing our utmost to resolve these issues as soon as possible, with full knowledge of the devastating impact on our employees and customers,” Maseko said.
It had been recently reported that Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu had found that Prasa nationally had accumulated an irregular expenditure of R24.2 billion in 2017 and 2018 financial year.
It had also been reported that Prasa had an operating deficit of R1.8 billion.
The media also reported that the national government had also cut down R13.2 billion from public transport and of which the large amount of the budget had been meant for Prasa.