State owned enterprises (SOE) like Eskom and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) can be sued for damages by their employees or their families if they did not take sufficient measures to protect the employee.
“In South African with its extreme high levels of violent crime, employers have an obligation to their employees to take reasonable preventative measures to ensure a safe working environment. If the employer is proved to have neglected this duty, the employer can be held accountable,” says John Pereira, Acting General Secretary of the United National Transport Union (UNTU).
UNTU has filed an application in the High Court in the Western Cape asking the Court to force Prasa to protect its members working on the notorious Central Line between Cape Town and Khayelitsha after repeated violent crime incidents over the last year.
According to Pereira the violent crime spree on the Central Line escalated rapidly after Train Driver Piet Botha was shot dead in broad daylight while waiting for a train at the Netreg Station in July last year.
UNTU’s demands for urgent intervention from Prasa and all other levels of Government including the South African Police Services, the Ministers of Police and Transport and the Deputy President fell on deaf ears.
“Approaching the court with this application is our last resort,” says Pereira. The Union is waiting for the Court to allocate a date for the matter to be heard.
But Prasa is not the only SOE failing its employees. South African also moans the shocking murder of Thembisile Yende, an Eskom employee who was found dead in her locked office at a Springs substation in Ekurhuleni.
Yende’s body was discovered on Monday at Eskom Pieterboth substation in Springs after she was reported missing two weeks ago. It is alleged that 30-year-old Yende was last seen when she went to her workplace in Springs late in the evening on May 17.
“This is a horrific incident that cannot be tolerated. UNTU demands that Government as the Custodian of all SOE’s immediately act to ensure that security measures are beefed up to standard.
If not, it will only result in more tax payer’s money being wasted on compensating victim’s due to SOE’s negligence,” says Pereira.
Pereira referred to a Supreme Court of Appeal judgement of 2014 which provided for employees to sue their employers for damages sustained outside the boundaries contemplated by the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act.
In this case against the MEC of the Department of Health in the Free State the employee was raped on 30 October 2010 while on duty. An intruder had gained access to the hospital premises. It was found that the employer had not taken sufficient measures to protect the employee to prevent such an event from occurring.
Issued on behalf of UNTU by Sonja Carstens, Media and Liaison Officer. For UNTU Press Statements phone 082 463 6806 or e-mail sonja@untu.co.za.
UNTU Greetings.
MR J PEREIRA
ACTING GENERAL SECRETARY
