Cape Town - A woman travelling on a Metrorail train was left severely traumatised on Tuesday after being robbed at gunpoint.
Tanya Lomas sat huddled in a corner, shaking with tears streaming down her cheeks as she spoke about her harrowing ordeal.
“They took my bag. There were three of them. One of the men pointed a gun at me. The other one said he must shoot me,” she said.
Lomas struggled with her assailants, but let go of her bag after hearing that she was going to be shot.
She had boarded her regular train to town at Southfield station. The incident happened during the journey to the next station, Ottery, where the robbers jumped off.
Cape Times reporters boarded the same train after the incident and witnessed Metrorail employees doing little to help Lomas.
Initially, another passenger alerted a security guard at Athlone station on the robbery. The guard entered the train and then called to another Metrorail employee. Both men jumped off the train as it started moving.
Four more security guards came marching through the carriage in pairs.
The guards briefly explained to Lomas that she was required to make a formal complaint at Cape Town train station, before moving off.
She reported the incident at Cape Town police station on Tuesday, but said she was still waiting for a case number.
Shaking and still in shock, Lomas was unable to write down her name when the Cape Times spoke to her after the incident yesterday. Lomas’s daughter, Shondré, said her mother was too distraught to speak after the incident.
Metrorail spokeswoman Riana Scott said the head of Metrorail Protection Services and the commander of SAPS Rail Rapid Response Unit had been requested to investigate the matter as no such incident had been reported.
Scott said passengers reported 47 robberies with 34 arrests in March and April.
“It is vital that neighbourhood watches, community police forums, ratepayers associations and other private security companies work together,” she said.
She said Metrorail’s regional static, mobile and undercover resources amount to over R200 million a year.
Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) spokeswoman Nana Zenani said the rail company produces safety management strategies for Metrorail.
“The strategies vary from region to region and if there are changes that need to be made, a directive will be made to alter that specific strategy.”
Zenani said Prasa was not in a position to make a call on the situation in Cape Town.
“The regional managers are to make sure the safety plans are carried out. Prasa does not have a constitutional mandate to police crime.”
Police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said: “Joint actions are planned and members from the various stakeholders are deployed in problematic hot spots as identified in the weekly analysis.”
[email protected] , [email protected]
Cape Times