Newly appointed Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula has revealed that over 1,000 train collisions took place on the country’s railways last year.

This was a 2% increase from 2017.

Mbalula released a safety report compiled by the Railway Safety Regulator last week.

He said that this painted a very grim picture of rail safety in the country, adding that the poor record of safety in the rail industry was alarming.

The Railway Safety Regulator recorded 1,027 collisions, with 588 people struck by trains.

“Behind the scene, why has this not been fixed? Who is in charge? We need to attend to this,” Mbalula said.

Prasa acting CEO Nkosinathi Sishi blamed ailing infrastructure for the lack of safety.

“We’ve got an old infrastructure. It’s about 60 years old and beyond its cycle.”

The minister said he would announce an action plan to deal with safety issues at Prasa.