Johannesburg - Vandalism and theft are costing the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) millions of rand, and at times, are threatening to cripple the service.
Counting its losses on Monday, the agency revealed that during April and last month it incurred damage amounting to R206 million from vandalism, some of which took place during service delivery protests unrelated to the rail agency.
Acting group chief executive Nkosinathi Khena said: “This completely takes us back. We are trying our best to ensure that we improve the system. Sometimes you find that during a service delivery protest that has nothing to do with Prasa, people will just burn our trains.”
In Gauteng, six trains were set alight, costing Prasa about R46m.
This month in Tshwane, protesters burnt 19 of the agency’s Autopax buses. Damage amounted to about R20m.
Eleven trains were set alight in Cape Town last month, costing about R140m in losses.
Most of the delays and inefficiencies resulted from the theft of signal cables, rail equipment and other infrastructure, which, in turn, frustrated and angered commuters who, in protest, set the assets alight or damaged them.
Khena said it could take more than six months to replace a train and longer to repair station infrastructure.
“These people do not only destroy coaches, they also destroy the electrical infrastructure and the stations, as happened in Cape Town. We are appealing to people to stop vandalising our property.”
He said these incidents of violence and destruction of property also threatened the safety of Prasa employees.
“Our drivers are demanding security; it’s not safe for them anymore.”
Most of the losses took place in the provinces most reliant on rail transport - Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.
Khena admitted that Prasa needed to improve its communications with commuters.
“This includes developing relationships with radio stations to announce incidents that can, from time to time, interrupt the system.”
He added that Prasa was busy acquiring 600 new trains and was concerned that they too would be vandalised.
The Star