Get Prasa back on track with safety

It is astounding that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) can glibly lay the blame for a number of devastating commuter train crashes at the feet of alleged vandals and thieves who steal cables. We are not saying that theft of electricity cables is not a very serious problem. It certainly is one of the biggest issues facing many sectors of the economy and, indeed, is tantamount to sabotage because it puts the lives and jobs of ordinary South Africans at risk.

However, Prasa is using cable theft as an excuse to cover up not only its own ineptitude but also its cavalier attitude to rules and regulations.

The reality is that while cables have been stolen and caused consequent malfunctions in the railway automatic signalling system, the crashes have been caused by human error. This human error has occurred among Prasa’s staff members who are responsible for changing signals manually when there are power failures.

The reasons that the errors happen range from a lack of effective training in manual signals procedures to overwork and fatigue – none of which have anything to do with cable theft.

Not only does Prasa try to deliberately mislead the public about the real causes of commuter train crashes – including the latest this week in Germiston where more than 200 passengers were injured – but it has also flouted a prohibition order on manual signalling issued by the Rail Safety Regulator after a previous collision.

If Prasa is allowed to get away with defying a statutory regulator, hundreds of thousands of train commuters will continue to be endangered and it is only a matter of time before there are bodies to add to the casualty lists.

It’s time that Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi starts getting the country’s rail transport business back on track.