Residents of Moloto and Ekangala area are demanding the erection of a railway corridor in their area with immediate effect.
Now to drive their point home, spirited members of civic movement known as Moloto Rail Concerned Residents marched to the Department of Transport in Tshwane to voice out their complaints to Minister Barbara Creecy on Wednesday morning.
“We are here today to submit a memorandum of grievances and demands regarding the Moloto Rail Corridor which was promised to be built for the people of Kwa-Mhlanga and Limpopo Province by former President Jacob Zuma during his State of the Nation (Sona) address of 2017,” explained Chairperson of the movement Hotnot Amos Mabusela.
Mabusela expressed concern that today (Wednesday) is the closing date of the National Draft Master Plan which will be taken to Parliament and be passed as a bill without including the Moloto Rail Corridor project.
“Since 2020 we have been staging marches to the Union Buildings hoping that President Ramaphosa would come and collect our memorandum regarding the Moloto Rail Corridor, but he never did,” lamented Masemola.
Sekwati Hendrick Madisha (71) from Kwaggafontein said he was a Ward Councillor back then when the Moloto Rail Corridor project was approved by the government; first under the presidency of former President Thabo Mbeki and later endorsed by the government under the presidency of former President Jacob Zuma.
“We as Amandebele people are not regarded as human beings by the ANC government which caters only for the needs of foreigners; our local economy is is dead as there are no trains running in the area and people have to wake up early in the morning to go to work in Pretoria using taxis and buses and come back home late at around 11am,” he griped.
He maintained that trains are a faster mode of transport compared to taxis and buses.
“Let the ANC government fall; I regret that I fought for the ANC government in 1976 and that my children and grandchildren won’t enjoy the fruits of the freedom that I fought for,” he said.
60-year-old Agnes Skhosana from Moloto complained about the fact that shacks and houses have now been built in the piece of land which had initially been earmarked as a building site for the Moloto Rail Corridor project.
“Let the government fulfil it’s promise to build us a railway line; we want to have trains in our area,” she said.
Director General in the Department of Transport Ngwako Makaipeya received the memorandum from the marchers and promised to pass it on to Minister Barbara Creecy.
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