Cape Town - Transport Union UNTU is furious about the state of the Passenger Rail Agency's (Prasa) train sets, blaming overcrowding for an incident in which a man was stabbed in the buttocks.
He had reportedly tried to board a train by jumping through the window at Philippi Station on the notorious Central Line in Cape Town.
Donna Venter, a union representative of UNTU working for Prasa in Salt River saw the would-be commuter's bag hit another passenger in the head as he came through the window.
"The other commuter was furious. The was no space to move on the train due to the overcrowding. The man got so angry that the stabbed the commuter in the left bottom and threw him out of the window again," Venter told Steve Harris, UNTU general secretary.
The injured commuter managed to hang on to the open window with his hands and held on until the train came to a halt, at the Nyanga Station where another commuter helped him climb back in.
According to Harris, the overcrowding creates life-threatening situations for commuters and train crews, the majority of which are members of UNTU.
"The overcrowding of trains is now a direct result of the vandalism of train coaches, by furious commuters who started torching coaches when trains were delayed, due to cable theft or other infrastructure related problems," Harris said.
Venter says she is late for work daily because she is unable to get onto a train. She gets home after 9pm due to the shortage of trains.