Rail workers protest over ‘dangerous, dysfunctional environment’

Members of the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) and the United National Transport Union (Untu) embarked on a national protest in Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria yesterday.

Untu deputy secretary-general Dan Khumalo said they were protesting against a dangerous and dysfunctional environment.

“Prasa [the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa] doesn’t move with the times because manual authorisation is not reliable. You can’t even see the train coming, unlike if they use a digital system,” he said.

“Our members end up making a mistake of authorising the train, while the track is occupied and [this] results in train collisions that cause death. This doesn’t only affect our members, even the commuters are not safe, and some lost their jobs because of always arriving late at work,” Khumalo said.

The protesters submitted their list of demands to members of the department of transport, who would submit them in turn to the office of the presidency.

“We want the president to act and remember that his pre-election publicity stunts were not forgotten. He said transport must be declared a crisis.”

Fedusa spokesperson Frank Nxumalo called on Ramaphosa to ensure safe and reliable passenger rail services “while critical infrastructure and signalling equipment are permanently replaced”.

Some of the issues emphasised in the memorandum include allegations of commuters being raped and injured.

The unions want army and police to be deployed on trains.

They also want Prasa to comply with occupational health and safety regulations.

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