”The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) just like all state-owned enterprises in South Africa is slowly deteriorating unfortunately at the expense of the poorer and tax paying South Africans
while the management continues to bag fat salaries and tenders. It is a sad reality that commuters are faced with atrocities every day of their lives in the hands of PRASA who doesn’t seem to be moved by any of these. They are only hiding behind criminal activities for the lack of running the agency sufficiently, says Success Maitsaine NUPSAW General Secretary.
“Large numbers of workers are commuters who leave their homes as early as 04:00 in the morning risking their safety hoping to be on time only to find they would still be delayed. Trips that only take 45 minutes to end up taking 3 hours as the President experienced yesterday, has become normal. It has become a norm for large numbers of workers to arrive late at the workplace with train delays as an excuse, which has become a cliché, and employers do not accept that as a valid excuse anymore because they expect their employees to be on time as they pay them salaries,” Mataitsane continues.
PRASA is supposed to provide an affordable and seamless service to the ordinary citizens of this country but it turned out to be more expensive both money-wise and time-wise for commuters, lots of people have received warning letters and others have lost their jobs. These trains are not safe, commuters are not safe inside the train, as some cabins have no doors or windows. An Association in Cape Town, #UniteBehind, had ordered the Minister of transport Blade Nzimande to declare PRASA a national disaster because of the chaotic actions that have erupted in the province and he failed to do so. He practically denied Cape Town commuters an opportunity of having the government intervening in the matter.
At times the trains just get stuck in the middle of nowhere with no communication whatsoever to the commuters, even though these trains are equipped with speakers to be used by the drivers to inform people of the cause of the disturbance.
We cannot shy away from the fact that criminals temper with operations of trains. But what has been done by PRASA to curb such activities? For the past few months, Cape Town has been on the map because of the trains that have been constantly set alight. People are complaining about the cabin overloads and criminal activities taking place in the trains with no positive end results from PRASA regarding safety in its trains going forward.
“Just yesterday when the President had been stuck on a train, PRASA shifted the blame to commuters who had attacked the driver. But what was the motive behind the attack? Is it not probably because the train was not there in the first place? What form of protection does PRASA provide for its workers like the drivers and guards, except suspending train operations in areas where commuters have protested against ill operations of trains? Mataitsane asks.
Train drivers and guards fear for their lives when they leave for work. This shows that PRASA is tumbling down and not a single person has come to its rescue, the government has been mum despite the public outcry” NUPSAW General secretary Success Mataitsane concludes.