“Unsafe” Prasa defies Railway Safety Regulator

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is continuing with its operations, despite the decision by the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) not to renew its safety permit.

Prasa transports more than two million passengers daily and is contravening the Railway Safety Regulator Act by operating without a valid safety permit.

In doing so, Prasa exposes itself to criminal prosecution and civil liability for any safety related incidents involving commuters or employees as it is operating illegally, says Wessie Wessels an independent attorney.

The United National Transport Union (Untu), as majority union at Prasa, said in a statement that its members are being forced by the employer to participate in the illegal activity. The union has instructed its lawyers to urgently write to Prasa in this regard.

“Untu believes it is only fair if our members refuse to work under these unsafe conditions,” says Untu general secretary Steve Harris. “And that is why we will take legal action to protect them.” 

Harris adds: “This is very dangerous situation. If our members continue working, they are assisting their employer in committing a criminal offence. But if the trains stop operating with immediate effect, as [they] should, furious commuters will go on a rampage and torch the few train coaches that the country has left.”

Untu said in a statement only days ago that Metrorail, which is part of Prasa, has less than half of the 88 train sets it needs to run a proper service left in the Western Cape. This follows several recent incidents where trains were set alight.

The RSR said in a statement on Wednesday that Prasa’s safety permit was earlier issued with special conditions. It expired at midnight on July 31 “and the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) has taken a decision not to issue a permit until it is satisfied that Prasa’s planned interventions addresses the current safety concerns.”

The RSR said it is of the opinion that Prasa “cannot demonstrate to the Regulator that it has the ability, commitment and resources to properly assess and effectively control the risks to assets and [the] safety of its customers, staff, contractors, visitors and others who may be affected by its railway operations.”

Prasa later responded, saying it “noted with alarm” the RSR’s statement.

It stated that the RSR, at a meeting with Prasa officials on July 25, said Prasa should make an assessment of the condition of all its assets, and submit a plan with regard to its modernisation programme and the filling of vacancies.

According to the RSR it set a deadline for Prasa to make these additional submissions by Friday July 27.

In its statement, Prasa said nothing about the deadline, but stated that it made the submissions on Tuesday July 31 “to which the RSR gave an undertaking to respond in 48 hours.

“In light of this, Prasa requested an extension of the Safety Permit to cover the 48 hour timeline given by the RSR to respond to Prasa’s submission,” the agency said.

“As of today, no official response has been received from RSR to Prasa except for what is now in the public domain through the media.

“This means that Prasa does not have an official document from RSR that articulates the sentiments shared in the media statement.”

Harris says it’s “mind-blowing how government, irrespective of the fact that Prasa had five ministers over the last two years, could have allowed this crucial state asset, the cheapest transport for the poorest of the poor, to fall apart like this.”

He adds: “Untu warned that the wheels where coming off and now they are off.”

Moneyweb earlier reported that Untu blew the whistle on train hijackings that occurred when passengers got so frustrated with the unreliable train service that they forced drivers to take trains on unscheduled routes just to get to their destinations.

Transport minister Blade Nzimande issued a statement on Wednesday saying that he has instructed Prasa to address all outstanding safety issues raised by the RSR. This, he said, should be done “without affecting the commuters and staff that use rail transport daily.”

Nzimande is awaiting detailed reports from both the RSR and Prasa, and said he will monitor the progress closely.