The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has achieved its first unqualified audit opinion in nine years, marking a significant milestone in the state-owned entity’s turnaround and governance reform.
This follows four years of disclaimer opinions (2019 to 2022) and two years of qualified opinions (2023 to 2024).
Commercial revenue reached R707.82 million. Of the 15 targets in its medium-term development plan, Prasa achieved 14, equating to a 93% performance score.
Chairperson of the board, Nosizwe Nokwe-Macamo, said the result reflected “rigorous oversight over the years” and a significant improvement in the relationship between the auditor general and Prasa as the auditee. She said the agency had moved from 2 500 pages of audit findings to a clean audit outcome.
“Where governance is strong in an organisation, where internal controls are strong, the picture will always be green,” said Nokwe-Macamo.
Group chief executive Hishaam Emeran said Prasa was on track for growth and expansion, adding that the transformation was remarkable given the organisation’s previous state.
He recalled that five years ago, headlines declared that “Prasa is broken”, following years of theft, vandalism, corruption, and a sharp decline in customer service and ridership.
The 2022/23 financial year marked a turning point, with performance rising from 19% in 2022 to 59% in 2023 and 93% in 2025. This compares with 21% in 2015.
“We say Prasa is the backbone of transport in the country, but we have not acted as the backbone,” Emeran said. He added that the accelerated return of passenger rail had seen 74 million passenger trips compared with 35 million last year — a notable recovery, though still below pre-collapse levels. Prasa aims to achieve 160 million passenger trips in 2025 and 600 million by 2035.
Service improvements were being felt by commuters, with 70% satisfaction levels now restored across 34 of the 40 lines, Emeran said. By March this year, 268 new trains had been delivered, 60 of them during 2024/25, with more than 75.8% deployed across the regions.
The agency reported that 84 718 jobs had been created through R21.2 billion in capital spending, both directly and indirectly. Prasa is now the fourth-largest state-owned entity by asset base, valued at R100 billion. Since 2022, it has maintained an annual capital expenditure rate of about R21 billion.
Long-distance travel, however, remains a challenge for Prasa. During the reporting period, 647 969 long-distance passengers were transported, slightly below the target of 651 670. Twenty-two long-distance trains operated — eight fewer than expected — due to ongoing challenges with locomotive and infrastructure.
Emeran noted progress in safety and infrastructure recovery, with 35 of 40 operational corridors restored.
“We’ve got five corridors to go, and we are busy with that as we speak. What this does is that it allows us to operate trains at a higher speed. It takes away speed restrictions,” he said. Trains are currently operating at 30km/h, though they are designed to run at 90km/h, he said.
Emeran said Prasa’s subsidiary Intersite Asset Investments was central to its strategy to diversify revenue through property and transit-oriented development. This includes the Cape Town Station mixed-use development, the Lab on Park student accommodation in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, the Goodwood social housing project in Cape Town, and the Diep River affordable housing development.
“What Prasa is doing is focusing on diversified transit development,” he said, adding that this would ensure that urban dwellers could live without relying on private vehicles by developing efficient, integrated transport networks. The agency aims to grow property revenue from R700 million to R2.5 billion by 2035.
Emeran said Prasa had also reduced irregular expenditure to R24 billion, with R18 billion already resolved, and plans to settle the remaining R6 billion by next year.
But while the agency celebrated its progress, the goal remained to achieve an audit with no findings by 2026.
Despite a R1.8 billion deficit, as expenses continue to outpace revenue, Prasa remains committed to financial recovery. Emeran noted that interest received from unspent capital budget funds remains its largest income source besides the government subsidy. The ultimate goal is for passenger fares to become the primary revenue stream.
Signalling upgrades on the Mabopane and Southern lines are expected to take 24 months to complete, with ongoing infrastructure recovery and digitisation, including modern ticketing systems, in corridors such as Daveyton and Motherwell in Gqeberha.
The state-owned passenger rail agency has a long-term goal of 600 million trips by 2035
