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TimesLIVE reports that two train sets that were burnt to ashes at Cape Town station on Sunday were worth an estimated R33m.
Richard Walker, regional head of Metrorail, said that two platforms were also damaged during the blaze and warned that commuters would feel the knock-on effects. "A [train] set was torched on platform 13 and high winds immediately fanned the fire and moved to an adjacent train set. The final count now is 12 coaches with an estimated value of damage to the train sets alone about R33m. Then obviously there is the further damage to infrastructure and facilities at the station as well," he told CapeTalk radio on Monday. Cape Town mayor Dan Plato said in a statement on Monday that while the cause of the fire had yet to be determined, "the reality is that more than 40 carriages have been burnt in arson attacks since 2017, crippling the backbone of public transport in the City of Cape Town, and yet not a single person has been charged as being responsible for any of the more than 10 incidents over the past two years". Walker commented that legislation needed to be amended to act as more of a deterrent for train arsonists as they could only currently be charged with malicious damage to property because trains were not regarded as a fixed structure.
- Read the full original of the report on this story at TimesLIVE
- Read too, Eight coaches lost as Cape Town train fire contained, at News24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page