Cape Town - The Passenger Rail Agency of SA's (Prasa)'s revised regional security strategy, to focus on hot spots and maintenance facilities, has led to several breakthroughs in the province.
Prasa’s armed security guards arrested four suspects at a Metrorail depot on Sunday morning, bringing to 14 the number of suspects arrested in the past seven days.
Police spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana said four suspects, aged 19, 30, 49 and 51, were arrested following the theft of cables on Sunday, and would appear in court once charged.
Metrorail spokesperson Riana Scott said the suspects were allegedly found in possession of copper cables and a significant amount of cash.
Scott said cash was allegedly used to bribe Prasa employees. An employee was arrested shortly afterwards as a result of information provided.
Metrorail’s acting regional manager, Raymond Maseko, commended the efforts of regional security manager Ernest Hendriks and his teams.
“Our collective focus is to restore and improve the train service against all odds. Sadly, those odds allegedly include our own employees,” he said.
He encouraged employees and the public to continue reporting crime.
United Commuters Voice spokesperson Joao Jardim said the revised strategy was working. “The question is, for how long? For now it seems like it is working but we have the freedom of knowing what previous companies did, such as start off strong and once they settled in, then things like law order went out the window,” he said.
Jardim said with the security boss Hendriks back at the helm they were hopeful that history would not repeat itself, and that he would lead by example.
Cape Argus