Call for quicker prosecution after another Cape Town train goes up in flames

Another train went up in flames in Cape Town on Thursday.

This time the train was at Retreat station in the southern suburbs‚ and images tweeted by @TrafficSA showed flames leaping out of a carriage’s windows and thick plume of black smoke pumping into the air.

Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Theo Layne said two fire engines‚ a water tanker‚ a rescue vehicle and 14 firefighters were awaiting the arrival of a technician to turn off overhead power lines before they could tackle the flames.

Several carriages on two trains were destroyed‚ allegedly due to arson‚ at Cape Town station on Saturday‚ part of what City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for transport Brett Herron called a campaign of sabotage against the city’s commuter rail system.

In a statement on Sunday‚ Herron said commuters would bear the brunt of the “senseless” attack.

“The sabotage of our rail system is relentless. I had hoped that the 15-year imprisonment sentence recently imposed by a court on a criminal convicted of sabotaging the rail system would have acted as some deterrent‚” he said.

“Clearly‚ these criminals need to see this kind of conviction and sentencing as inevitable if the criminal justice system is to assist us to save public transport from total destruction.”

Herron said as well as trains‚ Golden Arrow and MyCiTi buses and infrastructure were being targeted‚ and a number of cases awaited prosecution.

“I urge the National Prosecuting Authority to prioritise these prosecutions and to press for the harshest sentences possible‚” said Herron‚ adding that he would make himself available to argue in court fort heavy sentences.

“I make this offer in the hope that convictions and harsh sentences will deter the attacks we are seeing‚” he said.

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