COMMUTERS using railways across the country should take responsibility in exposing any crime that causes delays – such as cable theft and the burning of coaches – and have empathy with defenceless train drivers who have to endure the trauma of not knowing who will be attacked next.
This is the reaction of Mr Steve Harris, general secretary of the United National Transport Union (UNTU), after commuters were left stranded and delayed for hours after train drivers in the Western Cape decided to down tools in protest after Pieter Barend (Piet) Botha, 46, of Malmesbury was killed in broad daylight.
Botha was shot twice in the head on Monday while waiting for a train at Netreg station. He was doing a refresher training course when four armed robbers overpowered him to rob his bag.
Botha was a loyal member of UNTU while he worked for Metrorail, a division of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), for the past 26 years.
“Train drivers are very traumatised by this. Their lives are threatened daily due to circumstances beyond their control such as equipment failure due to power failures, signal failures due to lack of maintenance, and cable theft. The public at large do not understand the trauma train drivers have to endure and have endured to date.
“Every employee has the right to a safe working environment as entrenched in the law. As much as it is the drivers' responsibility to ensure that commuters are transported safely from and to work, it is also the commuter’s responsibility to expose any crime,” says Mr Harris.
UNTU thanked the SAPS for their prompt response in bringing these barbaric murderers to justice. Botha’s family – wife Tania, 42, daughter Nadia, 16, and son Brendon, 19 – are heartbroken. His funeral arrangements have not yet been finalised.
Mr Harris says UNTU is still waiting for a response from Prasa after the union demanded on Monday that an investigation be done to determine why there were no security guards on the platform when Botha was attacked.
Sonja Carstens
Media and Liaison Officer, UNTU