The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) says it has initiated a recruitment drive to find over three thousand more security guards to help protect rail infrastructure.
This as criminals continue to target Gauteng rail infrastructure – stripping it bare.
Metal railway lines, overhead cables, and other items have been stolen from local stations and lines.
Repeated cases of vandalism have also forced Prasa to use diesel locomotives.
Prasa’s spokesperson Makhosini Mgitywa, says vandalising infrastructure impacts the poor.
“It is a very sad state of affairs, it costs the people of SA billions of rands when they damage infrastructure. I think all of us should be outraged because what is happening is an attack on the country, the economy, poor people and low-income areas – people who earn little money and on minimum wage. So this is a direct attack on commuters,” adds Mgitywa.
Below is the press release by Prasa:
One of the suspects is an employee of Prasa at the management level at one signal depot in the Germiston area in the City of Ekurhuleni.
The other is a former Prasa manager, who now owns and runs an electrical and railway equipment supply company.