Mamelodi train station platform extension put on hold

Residents of Mamelodi are complaining about the incomplete extension to the train station platform, which has turned into a dumping site and drug hub for criminals in the area.

There were currently only four train rides from the Garden Train Station in Mamelodi, two in the morning and two in the afternoon.

A security guard, who could not be named, said the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) had already started with improvements but had to stop.

“I cannot be sure why, but we have started cleaning and restoring,” he said.

The empty property stands meant to be an extension of the platform have instead become a dumping site for litter, beer bottles and dead animals. Two residents living next to the empty stands said they was not being maintained, guarded or tended to.

NOW READ: Maimane’s claims ‘misleading’ – No one can pass matric with 30% says DBE

“The railway took out the houses here to build and just look,” Jane Mkwane said.

Mkwane, who has been living in the the area for 32 years, said criminals have started sleeping on the cement slabs meant to be used to rebuild the platform. Now, it is an overgrown piece of land with building rubble, garden waste and litter on it.

“This is a problem for us, it attracts big mice, rats as big as cats, the rats fight my cat.”

Salome Khonoti said dead dogs and cats were being dumped in the overgrown grass on the property and the smell of rotting carcasses infiltrated the houses.

ALSO READ: ‘Bottomless pit’ Prasa turns to public for protection

Khonoti said she had to hire gardeners out of her pocket to clean up the empty property belonging to Prasa. “I can’t let the children play outside, they are smoking and using needles around here. It’s dangerous for the children,” she said.

Khonoti said it has been almost 10 years since the extension started. Railway expert Dr Willem Sprong said there had been many projects Prasa could not get off the ground. Sprong said he was involved with the installment of two substations at the station years ago.

“By the time they started implementing resignaling, it was already old technology.”

Prasa did not respond to requests for comment.