Chairperson, I hereby give notice that at the next sitting of the Council I shall move:
That the Council -
1) notes the recent announcement by the Minister of Transport that rail transport for the hundreds of thousands of commuters who rely on trains to get from Khayelitsha to Cape Town will be hugely improved and that new trains will be bought for the Khayelitsha line;
2) also notes that most of the commuters of the City of Cape Town live in Khayelitsha and the Cape Flats and that the ANC government comes to the rescue of these people at a time when Metrorail, which is to take workers to and from work, is falling apart and the DA- controlled City of Cape Town has once again dismally failed these people by refusing to implement its BRT system in these areas as well or as a priority;
3) further notes that the Khayelitsha-to-Cape Town route is used by almost 140 000 commuters daily and forms part of the central line that also serves areas like Mitchells Plain, Belhar, Philippi and Langa - the situation is so critical that people are hanging out of overfull trains to get to and from work and the Minister has quite rightly remarked: "It is nothing more than luck that more people have not died";
4) notes that the DA had instead implemented the BRT service in the affluent areas and in areas where the need and priority for public transport are much lower than in Khayelitsha and the Cape Flats and despite the fact that the Khayelitsha line has been identified as the highest priority rail project nationally, and despite the Western Cape MEC for transport having admitted and agreed that public transport to and from Khayelitsha is untenable; and
5) commends the ANC government who, unlike the DA, serves the interests of all South Africans, for rectifying the unjust and apartheid-style services by the DA and for once again coming to the rescue of the masses who are in desperate need of access to appropriate and equitable public transport.