Cape Town - National Transport Department officials were criticised by ANC MP Lawrence McDonald during their briefing of the committee on the department’s first quarter performance, railway safety and marine bills.
The officials presented a report on the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), also focusing on the improvement of rail signalling along the Central Line.
Their presentation also pointed to 10000 jobs created by Prasa through its public infrastructure projects, reducing incidents of personal safety, theft and vandalism of passenger rail infrastructure by 50%.
However, McDonald was unimpressed that officials’ reports did not touch on the more current issue on the Central Line, particularly the Netreg-Bonteheuwel railway that has been ground to a halt by criminals.
A video of two masked men firing assault weapons near the train station recently made headlines and gained viral traction on social media.
The video surfaced shortly after reports that reconstruction of the Central Line in Bonteheuwel had been suspended until Prasa could fortify its security between Netreg and the Cape Town stations.
Speaking before the committee, McDonald said: “Netreg at the moment has been taken over by thugs. They are shooting at the construction people. They are shooting at the security (guards). They are literally taking over a station that belongs to Prasa, and nothing is being done about it.”
Officials said they would look into the matter.
DA councillor Angus McKenzie said reconstruction work had been going on for two months through the Bonteheuwel line, leading to the employment of 100 locals, but men gatecrashed the site and stopped operations without making any demands.
As he addressed a meeting about these developments, the video of the two men shooting automatic guns surfaced. McKenzie said he was aware that since the stoppage of work, Prasa had spent four days drawing up a strategic security plan, which has been handed over to Bonteheuwel police for consideration.
“SAPS is looking through it today (Tuesday) and we anticipate that work will recommence during the course of this week,” McKenzie said.
“While many people, including myself, called it an extortion attempt ... the reality is in extortion situations, there have been demands made. In this case, we’ve seen no such thing.
“What I do believe is something to consider is that the very same people that would ordinarily be involved in (cases like this) are very much linked to the taxi industry.”
He said this was due to trains being cheaper than taxis.
McKenzie said Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula had on numerous occasions promised communities along the Central Line armed security personnel to guard the infrastructure.
He said Mbalula delivered only three unarmed security guards. Mbalula’s spokesperson, Lwaphesheya Khoza, had not responded at the time of publication.