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Transport unions want new Prasa CEO to stop vandalism and theft of rail infrastructure

Details

prasaBusinessLive reports that trade unions have called on new Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) group CEO Zolani Kgosie Matthews to ensure, as part of his priorities at the embattled rail operator, that the theft and vandalism of rail infrastructure is stopped.

Prasa, which has not had a permanent CEO since the departure of Lucky Montana in 2015, has been crippled by widespread vandalism estimated to have cost R4bn in the past few years. This prompted transport minister Fikile Mbalula to launch an intelligence-driven protection plan in September 2020, which included the insourcing of 3,100 security officers to beef up Prasa’s security unit. Mbalula introduced Matthews as the new group CEO at Langa in Cape Town on Saturday. The United National Transport Union’s (Untu’s) Steve Harris said the first thing Matthews needed to do was to “stop the theft” of rail infrastructure and that the only way to do that was by “collaboration between the SA Police Service, SA National Defence Force (SANDF), Prasa security and the department of transport.” He opined that the “dire straits” Prasa was in required that “you bring in the SANDF because you repair today and tomorrow it’s stolen”. Nontembeko Luzipho of the Democratised Transport Logistics and Allied Workers’ Union (Detawu) commented:  “Prasa is on the verge of collapse. He (Metthews) has a huge task to ensure that the cracks that are showing in the walls do not lead to a collapse”. Lubabalo Tinzi of the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) also expressed concern that almost all Prasa’s systems were “on the brink of collapse” and called on Matthews to engage all strategic stakeholders including organised labour to ensure that commuters across SA had access to train services.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive


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