Police and the Passenger Rail of Agency of SA (Prasa) have joined forces after Metrorail was forced to shut down its busy central line due to vandalism.
Thousands of commuters were left stranded and many could not get to work this week.
The special team included Cape Town Law Enforcement‚ targeted scrap yards‚ second hand dealers and bucket shops on the Cape Flats.
Eight people were arrested for the possession of copper cable and five fines valued at R10 000 were issued in terms of the Second Hand Goods Act.
According to a statement issued by police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk‚ they confiscated 104kg of cable‚ five fire extinguishers and two train windows.
"Positive feedback was received from community members in Bishop Lavis‚ Heideveld and Mitchells Plain during the execution of all these actions‚'' said Van Wyk.
On Thursday the City of Cape Town announced that it would host a rail summit next year to discuss the "current crisis rail commuters face on a daily basis''.
Meanwhile Janine Myburgh‚ president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry‚ said: "Suburban trains are packed way beyond their capacity. The conditions are inhuman and much worse than I could possibly have imagined."
Recently Myburgh boarded a train with Cape Town mayoral committee member for transport‚ Brett Herron‚ and travelled from Kraaifontein to the CBD.
The train was so packed that when she dropped a cooldrink bottle it did not make it to the floor and it ''remained wedged between the bodies.''
"I spoke to commuters who told me they had to get up at 4am to get to work and they did not get home again till 7pm. One man told me he had to appear at a disciplinary hearing because he had been late so often. He wasn't bitter and he said he understood why his employers were taking action but there was nothing he could do‚'' she said.
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