Monday, April 21, 2025

Ramaphosa’s Disastrous Train Ride Leads To Obvious Epiphany [Video]

Cyril Ramaphosa landed some real-world experience of South Africa's public transport, when he was stuck on a train for hours yesterday.

The election is happening now-now (not just now), which means that politicians are pulling out all the stops on the campaign trail.

Cyril Ramamphosa pulled more of a stop than he bargained for when a PR stunt alerted him to just how awful public transport is.

The president decided to connect with the people by taking a Metrorail train from Mabopane to Bosman stations in Pretoria on Monday, reports News24.

The journey usually takes 45 minutes – and by usually, I mean it takes 45 minutes when there aren’t delays, strikes or general incompetence.

Watch this supposedly lighthearted exchange which ends with a succinct summary of what’s happening.

Yes, Pres. Yes, it is very bad.

Ramaphosa and his fellow commuters boarded the train at 7:30AM. Three hours later, they still weren’t moving.

“Levels of frustration are quite high, but people surprisingly have been patient, patient because they are hoping the ANC would see what’s happening and bring about changes,” said Ramaphosa.

He added that he and the premier were inspired to take action and said it was not what they wanted to see.

Uhm, the ANC has been in power for more than two decades, and the trains have been a disaster for most of that time. This shouldn’t be news.

Alan Winde, the DA candidate for Premier of the Western Cape, didn’t need an epiphany on a crowded train to know that.

Anyway, here’s everyone being “patient” while the train sits there:

This was an hour in and people were already losing it.

The president responding to overcrowding by dangling out of the window.

When it all began, he even tried talking to the conductor. This was ineffective. Obviously.

Following this life-changing train commute, which eventually got Ramaphosa to Pretoria, he made a speech about his findings:

Ramaphosa said that they would bring attention to the “lived reality” of South Africans.

The president told the eNCA reporter that he had not communicated with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) yet but said he wanted to hold meetings with senior officials over the issues South Africans experienced daily on the trains.

“We haven’t interacted with Prasa yet, but we are going to interact with them at the highest level to make sure that the board chair, the CEO, acting or otherwise, will get to fully understand the level of anger and frustration that is amongst our people here,” said the president.

Welcome. We’ve been expecting you.

I also feel like he didn’t get the full Metrorail experience.

He came out of this with his wallet, cellphone and no great emotional turmoil, which leaves us with the question:

Did he even train?

[sources:news24]