President Cyril Ramaphosa and Cape Town Mayor Embroiled in Political Spat Over Devolving SA’s Rail System

• President Cyril Ramaphosa and Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis are embroiled in a heated clash over control of the rail system
• The two engaged in a back-and-forth with ultimatums and Twitter exchanges intensifying the political feud
• The clash revolves around the devolution of rail governance, with Hill-Lewis accusing Ramaphosa of overlooking commuter needs

PRETORIA - The political beef between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is starting to heat up.

The trouble was sparked by Hill-Lewis taking aim at the President of South Africa.

On Monday, 14 August, the mayor threatened to declare an intergovernmental dispute against the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) if President Ramaphosa did not respond to the city of Cape Town's request to create a joint working committee on rail devolution by 31 August, Daily Maverick reported.

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Ramaphosa hits back at Hill-Lewis’ threats

Ramaphosa did not take too kindly to the Cape Town mayor and his metro’s threats and communicated as much through his spokesperson in the Presidency, Vincent Magwenya. The Presidency rebuffed Hill-Lewis’ ultimatum claiming that President Cyril Ramaphosa does not respond to threats, News24 reported.

Magwenya said:

“We would rather deal with matters through processes in a constructive manner. The mayor can exercise his prerogative as he sees fit, and we will respond accordingly through due process.”

Mayor Hill-Leiws didn’t waste any time responding to Ramaphosa’s slight and took to Twitter to make his frustrations known.

Hill-Lewis takes feud to Twitter

Hill-Lewis accused Ramaphosa of ignoring his call to work together to solve the rail system problem.

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Hill-Lewis tweeted:

“You’re really ignoring the 1 million commuters in Cape Town who need the trains to work. Your own national policy is to devolve rail, but you’re not implementing it. Why not?”

Devolving rail involves transferring the power to govern rail systems to capable metros that can handle the responsibility. Cabinet passed the White Paper on National Rail Policy, committing to the devolution in May. Still, Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga revealed there were no plans to devolve rail to the City of Cape Town.

Ramaphosa, Hill-Lewis rail dispute sparks debate

Below are some comments:

@mark_keohane slammed:

"This individual doesn't respond ... PERIOD ... Why this surprise?"

@adw365 asked?

"What else do you expect, Geordin?"

@TamiTamijack7 criticised:

"Threat or no threat, constructive or not constructive, they generally don’t respond to anything."

@geoffheald added:

"Surely a government's best interests are to serve the people? Sorry, my bad it is the ANC WE ARE DEALING WITH..."

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State capture: President Cyril Ramaphosa says “significant progress” has been made with R5.4 billion recovered

Earlier, Briefly News reported President Cyirl Ramaphosa says the government has been implementing some of the State Capture Commission of Inquiry recommendations.

Ramaphosa stated in his weekly newsletter that the government has made significant progress since the commission concluded two years ago.

Ramaphosa explained that the government submitted a plan to implement the commission's recommendations to Parliament in October 2022, and they have been implementing some of the plans since then.

Source: Briefly News