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Today, reports revealed that two friends, both pregnant women from the DRC, died when a train struck them outside the Kuilsrivier train station in Cape Town yesterday afternoon. It appears the women had crossed through a broken fence to take a shortcut over the train tracks.

The loss of essentially four lives, two mothers and their unborn babies, is not only devastating in itself, but even more so in light of the fact that their deaths may have been prevented.

Though an inquest into the incident has been launched by police, Metrorail officials have pointed to a broken fence and the frequency by which people use them to cross over train tracks in order to save time.

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) CEO Lucky Montana should in part be held responsible. Under his tenure, PRASA has stopped replacing and repairing train fences and walls, since as Mr Montana claims, they are just torn down again by vandals. He has however, indicated that he is investigating fencing alternatives, but his efforts have yet to yield fruit. In the meantime, people are being injured or getting killed.

The recently released South African Railway State of Safety Report indicates that, on average, 5 people per day are either injured or die in railway accidents.
These statistics are shocking and unacceptable.

I will be pushing PRASA and Transport Minister, Mr Ben Martins, in Parliament as to what is being done to curb these incidents and why as of yet nothing is being done to ensure that dangerous areas near the train tracks are properly cordoned off. I will also be asking both oral and written parliamentary questions on the matter.

The safety of our people must be a priority first and foremost. PRASA needs to urgently step up to guarantee that people in and around train stations are properly protected.