SowetanLive reports that a call has been made for transport minister Fikile Mbalula to dissolve the current board of the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) following a train collision that claimed the life of a passenger on the West Rand.
The crash that left scores injured happened at around 10pm on Wednesday when a Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) Premier Classe train collided with a stationary Transnet goods train between the Roodepoort and Horizon stations. Steve Harris of the United National Transport Union (Untu) on Thursday urged Mbalula to get rid of the RSR board as it was "toothless" in the face of fatal crashes. Harris said” "The RSR has no teeth and cannot be compared to other watchdog institutions like Civil Aviation. If Civil Aviation grounds an airline, it remains grounded until it is declared safe to start operating again. The RSR, on the other hand, simply turns a blind eye. Minister Mbalula needs to dissolve the current board of RSR, which has been appointed on a month-to-month basis since their contracts expired last October." Mbalula said his department would identify the cause of the crash and "devise strategies to minimise similar occurrences in future".
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tankiso Makhetha at SowetanLive
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