In a bid to protect the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (Prasa) infrastructure, the entity has trained volunteers in the Western Cape to join its newly launched programme, the People’s Responsibility to Protect Project (PR2P).

The more than R100 million project was launched by the Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, the Prasa board, the police, civil and community organisations at the Langa train station.

Cape Town’s central line hasn’t been operational since October 2019 due to continuous vandalism on Prasa’s infrastructure.

Volunteers will be paid and this People’s Responsibility programme will be rolled out in other provinces.

Prasa says it’s budgeted to employ over 5,000 people nationally.

The project is expected to be implemented in five phases: the launch and public engagement; volunteer training; deployment and integration; project monitoring and evaluation; and report writing.