Durban - Following the spate of violent activities at Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) Rail stations in Durban, Prasa officials from the national office arrived in Durban on Thursday to address stakeholders and the media on the trains that were burnt on Wednesday afternoon.
Two trains were set alight at Durban and Berea stations and the cause is believed to be due to delays in train schedules.
Dr Sipho Sithole, Prasa group chief strategy officer, said R172 billion has been invested by the government to overhaul Prasa Rail infrastructure for the next 20 years and there is work in progress already in KwaZulu-Natal.
Rajen Haripersad, Prasa head of security in the KZN region, said the incident happened at around 5:30 pm.
Rajen Haripersad, Prasa's KZN Regional head of security, with Dumi Dube, Prasa regional manager, and Prasa's group chief strategy officer, Dr Sipho Sithole, held a media briefing about the train fires. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo/ ANA
“We had overhead power failure due to a wire cable that snapped. Following that was operational challenges as we had very few platforms to channel our trains to as it was peak hour. People became unruly and out of control as members tried to calm them. We heard that one train was on fire in Berea and about 20 minutes later another one was reported to have been set on fire in Durban Station,” Haripersad said.
He said due to the “unbecoming behaviour”, Prasa staff had to force themselves into the coaches to rescue the employees on board the trains.
“We used about 14 fire extinguishers to control the fire. The fire brigades also came through to extinguish the fire. There were delays but our operations continued by channeling trains to other platforms,” he said.
Haripersad said the matter was now under the police investigation.