Cape Town - The United National Transport Union (Untu) is planning to approach the courts with an urgent application to force the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) and government to protect rail employees and commuters.
Untu general secretary Steve Harris said the union had reached a point where it had to admit that the situation on commuter trains had reached a situation where the government and Prasa were “blatantly ignoring” one of the fundamental constitutional rights, the right to life, set out in the Bill of Rights.
Harris said the police had a responsibility to prevent, combat and investigate crime, maintain public order and to protect and secure the inhabitants of South Africa and their property. Harris said enough was enough.
“If government can’t draw the line, Untu will ask the courts to decide what workers and citizens can expect authorities to do to prevent this and to protect workers and commuters in a democratic state.”
This comes in the wake of another train fire in Cape Town on Friday. A train which was travelling from Cape Town en route to Wellington was torched on the Northern line between Dal Josafat and Huguenot station.
Metrorail spokesperson Zino Mihi said two first-class motor coaches and three plain trailers were burnt out.
“The fire brigade, police and Metro- rail technicians were on the scene to extinguish the fire.”
Mihi said the damage estimation amounted to R19 million, and total damage was R93m due to train fires for this year.
“This amount is only for train coaches and motor coaches.
“The train was reported to have been stationary at the time, due to a technical problem, and is suspected to have been set alight during that time.”
Untu spokesperson Sonja Carstens said a substance was used to ensure that the fire spread fast, as in all the other unsolved arson attacks on train coaches in the Western Cape.
Carstens said Untu’s leadership would meet with the union’s legal team to bring the application as soon as possible.
@SISONKE_MD