The United National Transport Union (UNTU) is extremely disappointed in the attitude of the South African Police Service (SAPS) that they only need to protect commuters on train stations and railway lines against criminals, but not the train crews of the trains.
“The crews of trains are also South Africans afforded the same constitutional rights to protection by the SAPS as any other citizen. They are sitting ducks for criminals who knows the service conditions imposed on them by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) prohibits them from carrying firearm to work to protect themselves, “says Steve Harris, General Secretary of UNTU.
This comes after Brig. Selvy Mohlala, spokesperson of the SAPS, explained to UNTU that the Rappid Rail Safety Awareness Campaign that was lunched by the SAPS at the Pretoria Central Station yesterday, was only aimed at commuters.
“The aim of the campaign is to alert commuters to crime on trains and railway lines and to get them to assist the SAPS with information about these criminals so that we can together alleviate this problem. We want the commuters to give us information about cable theft syndicates so that they can be arrested and brought before the courts, “says Mohlala.
According to Mohlala the campaign is a joint venture between SAPS, PRASA and other stakeholders in the railway industry. A team of SAPS official have been deployed nationally to enhance visibility on railway lines and trains. The SAPS will also focus on crime hotspots that PRASA pointed out to them, like the Central line from Khayelitsha to Cape Town in the Western Cape were two UNTU members have been murdered in recent months.
Harris says UNTU, the majority trade union in the railway sector who has been the driving force behind the train safety issue for the past six months, was not invited to attend the launch of the campaign.
“On Wednesday one of our train drivers was stuck in a train at the Elandsfontein Station near Johannesburg with commuters threatening to burn the train and who trough stones at him without any help. The train driver only managed to escape the train after another train arrived at the platform. One cannot imagine the extreme trauma the train driver experienced during the incident as there was no PRASA security or SAPS officials to help him. Why not? Where were they,”? Harris asked.
UNTU have repeatedly pleaded with Government to intervene in the fight against vandalism and crime on trains and have met with the special advisor of Transport Dipuo Peters to raise the crucial security issues at PRASA with her.
UNTU and its affiliated federation, FEDUSA, are awaiting a response from Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa after they asked him last week officially to appoint and chair a joint task team consisting of the highest leadership levels of Government, represented by the Ministers of Finance, Transport, Police, Small Business, FEDUSA, UNTU, and PRASA management to prevent the total collapse of South Africa’s passenger railway operator.
For more information phone Harris on 082 566 5516.
Issued on behalf of UNTU by Sonja Carstens, Media and Liaison Officer. For UNTU Press Releases e-mail sonja@untu.co.za or phone 082 463 6806.
