Court hears of Wild West on W Cape trains

THERE are only 89 operational police officers to protect more than 500 000 commuters travelling by train every day in the Western Cape.

This is according to the commander of the Crime, Information, Management, Office of the Rapid Rail police unit, Captain Len Fribus.

Fribus was testifying yesterday at the sentencing proceedings of Jathiem Hamid, Dorian Diedericks and Cedric Andrew, who were convicted of the murder of train driver Piet Botha.

Botha was killed at the Netreg station platform on July 16, 2016.

He was on a refresher course where he was training new train drivers.

Fribus said only 89 operational police officials were available to police all the railway lines in the province, including the trains of Metrorail, Shosholoza Meyl and Transnet.

Fribus said owing to the overcrowding of trains no police official was present on trains during peak times as they could not stand within 30cm of commuters.

Fribus said police patrolled trains only from 9am, when it was no longer peak time.

The province had between 500 000 and 700 000 train commuters daily.

“We should be more than 1 000 police officials, but we are not.”

Fribus said there was a 300% increase in rail-related murders in the province because the railway line was being used as a “dumping area” for the bodies of victims that were murdered elsewhere.

“The modus operandi is to place bodies on the tracks in the early hours of the morning so that the first trains can dispose of the evidence,” said Fribus.

On the Central Line there had been a 32% reduction in such incidents during this financial year. This was due to joint patrols of police officials and Prasa protection officers.