ANA reports that Transport Minister Blade Nzimande said on Tuesday that he was outraged after two trains collided earlier in the morning, leaving hundreds of people injured and three people dead.  He laid the blame on cable theft.  

The trains were both travelling on the same line towards Pretoria from Mabopane when they collided at Mountain View Station.  The trains were transporting more than 800 passengers.  Over 300 commuters were left injured and were transported to different hospitals around the area.  Nzimande indicated that cable theft resulted in the malfunctioning of the signalling system, which forced train operations to be switched to manual authorisation, which led in turn to miscommunication.  He said management had to account on why money was being spent on upgrading security, yet cable theft was still on the rise.  Nzimande demanded answers from the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) and the Railway Safety Regulator within a few days on actions to be taken to deal with security.  He stated that no security company should get a tender from Prasa if they could not demonstrate what they intended to do in combating cable theft.

• Read the original of this report by Brenda Masilela in full at IOL News

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