The United National Transport Union (UNTU) instructed its legal team this morning to fast track their preparation of an urgent application to ask the courts to force the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) to take drastic steps to protect its employees and commuters from criminals.
Last night train driver Celeste Roberts, driving train 1091, was on her way on the railway line from Cato Ridge to Durban. When she approached the Burlington station near Durban a single round was fired at her. UNTU is grateful that the bullet did not hit Roberts, a loyal member of the Union.
In the meantime, services at the notorious Central Line in from Khayelitsha to Cape Town in the Western Cape where train driver Pieter Barend (Piet) Botha was killed on the platform of the Netreg Station, was suspended due to service delivery strikes by communities in the area. The communities are up in arms about the lack of housing in the area and barricaded roads and railway lines in the area. Vandalism experienced in the Langa / Bonteheuwel area this morning.
Mr. Eddie de Klerk, Acting General Secretary of UNTU, says the situation is getting completely out of hand.
“Over the past three months UNTU has warned, pleaded and threatened PRASA and the Transport Minister Dipuo Peters, who oversees the South African state owned enterprise responsible for most passenger rail services in the country, to do something before more lives are lost.
“It is a war out there and our members are living in fear. But instead of doing whatever it takes to fulfil its obligations in terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Constitution to provide a safe working environment for its employees, PRASA is doing exactly the opposite.
“Just last week the Western Cape High Court ordered PRASA to pay the R7.3m it owes two companies for security services. This was after the sheriff of the court attached seven PRASA coaches in lieu of the R2.4m owed to Chuma Security in a separate matter. Ironically these guard who did not get paid, work along the commuter routes to Strand, Wellington, Langa, Bonteheuwel and Khayelitsha where one of their colleagues was shot dead and robbed of his firearm while patrolling,” says De Klerk.
For enquiries phone De Klerk on 082 567 6638.
Issued on behalf of UNTU by Sonja Carstens, Communication, Media and Liaison Officer. For UNTU Press Statements phone Carstens at 082 463 6806 or send an e-mail to sonja@untu.co.za.
