How thieves have destroyed the network

Dunswart railway station is now near a ruin.

The dangling cables, crumbling buildings and towering weeds obscuring the tracks give the impression of a long deserted place.

But it’s not the time that caused the destruction at this stop east of South Africa’s commercial hub, Johannesburg.

Thieves and vandals have been at work.

It only functioned two years ago, but now, outside the station, workers have to board the slower and more expensive minibus taxis to reach the center of the city.

The damage to Dunswart station is typical of the decline of South African railways.

In the past two years, thieves and vandals have attacked Dunswart railway station

With a network of more than 30,000 km (18,600 miles) of track, South Africa has the most advanced rail system on the continent, but it has been gutted by criminals looking to make money from scrap metal.

A decision in late 2019 to cancel all private security contracts exacerbated an already difficult situation.

South Africa’s Passenger Rail Agency (Prasa), which oversees the management of the passenger network, made the move because the state’s financial watchdog found that the proper process was not being followed when the contracts were awarded.

The problem was that there was no contingency plan to take care of the vital infrastructure.

The stations became easy prey for those who saw that money could be made quickly.

Open season for looters

When Covid-19 hit and the country went into lockdown in 2020, train stations became even more vulnerable.

With no security, it was open season for looters, and some were bold enough to do the damage in broad daylight.

Prasa has a new board and the chairman, Leonard Ramatlakane, blames his predecessors for the current state of the railways.

“It’s a shame,” he admits. “The people before us… dropped the ball.”

A report from last year by the Brenthurst Foundation think tank said the rail network was on the brink of complete collapse.

"Some of the vandalism that took place here continued unabated"  we can't say by whom, because no one has been arrested, but clearly [there are] vested interests""Source: Fikile Mbalula, Source description: Minister of Transport of South Africa, Image: Fikile Mbalula

The report found that two-thirds of the overhead cables covering more than 3,000 km of track had been stolen. It estimated it would cost the state about 500,000 rand ($32,000; £24,000) per kilometer to restore.

Politically, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula is responsible for the railways and he has been harshly criticized by the public for his handling of the security debacle.

He believes the vandalism experienced by the rail network may have been deliberate sabotage.

“Some of the vandalism that has taken place here has continued unabated… we cannot say by whom as no one has been arrested, but it is clear [there are] vested interests,” he told the BBC.

During an inspection of recently renovated railway stations in Cape Town, Mr Mbalula pledged to take much tougher measures to protect vital infrastructure.

“We have a tight security plan involving law enforcement [and] also Prasa security. It involves modern security measures, so when an electrical cable is destroyed and cut, there is a rapid armed response,” he said.

Unreliable trains

But even as the minister is talking loudly about ending the theft and vandalism, there is another issue that needs to be addressed, as trains in South Africa are notoriously inefficient and unreliable.

Something I found out myself the day after the minister’s visit to Cape Town.

My train journey from the Plumstead suburb ended four stops before the city’s main station due to a “signaling problem”.

I rode with seasoned train commuter Lorenzo Davids, who has been traveling these tracks for 40 years.

He shares photos and anecdotes of his daily train journey on Twitter in an effort to encourage more people to use rail, but he knows the public doesn’t trust the system.

This is partly because of the infrastructure problems, but partly because of the management.

“There are the lines, there is the physical infrastructure, there are all kinds of signaling systems that need to be maintained,” he says.

“There is a certain intellectual knowledge that is left behind within that rail infrastructure system. I don’t think we take that seriously enough.”

When the train ended its journey, frustrated commuters rushed outside to take minibuses to work.

They had to spend money that they had no budget for.

Remains of a building and railway

Poor infrastructure and unreliable service harm the economy

“Actually, I’m so freaking exhausted because this has been going on for 10 years. You don’t hear excuses, you get all those stupid excuses,” a visibly furious commuter told me as she got off the train.

“It’s a dire situation – this morning exemplifies exactly the kind of frustration commuters experience on a daily basis,” said Mr Davids as he too ran off to catch a taxi to work.

This isn’t just about inconvenience for commuters, it has a direct impact on the economy.

And it’s the poor that suffer.

In a country with such high unemployment and poverty, the lack of trains as a reliable and affordable public transport system will only exacerbate South Africa’s already high inequality.

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