The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is calling on lawmakers to focus on railway vandalism after two more of its trains derailed this week allegedly as a result of theft.  

A train travelling between Pretoria and Germiston in Gauteng derailed on Wednesday morning while a train travelling between the Netreg Station and the Heideveld Station on Cape Town’s central line suffered a similar fate on Thursday morning.

Commenting on the Gauteng incident United National Transport Union (UNTU) general secretary Steve Harris said the train derailed after clamps that keep the track attached to the sleepers were stolen and he suspects the same for the Cape Train incident which is currently under investigation.

Prasa’s Nana Zenani told Eye Witness News that criminals are now more brazen in their theft of valuable infrastructure.

“Because now there’s an urgent need to replace the service once it’s been vandalised overnight, we then lose the most important part of this investigation, which is the collection of forensic evidence. We have to fix it so that the line can run.”

These incidents come a week after two trains collided at the train station in Geldenhuys, Germiston where at least 200 commuters were injured. This after another train crash claimed the lives of 19 people in the Free Sate on 4 January 2018.