PRASA blasted for risking millions of lives with “barely-usable brakes”

Train operators PRASA have been slammed to high heaven by the DA on Tuesday, after they discovered a damning report issued by the Rail Safety Regulator (RSR). The surprise visit to an unnamed site – conducted at the end of January – found that some technicians were forced to dig through bins to find usable brake blocks.

Braking bad: PRASA slammed for “digging up parts from bins”

The gob-smacking information has been collected by Chris Hunsinger. The shadow minister of transport has a myriad of documents – apparently issued by RSR – that expose these dangerous practices for all to see.

The DA representative says the lives of millions of South African rail commuters “have been put in unimaginable amounts danger”, and confirmed that the party will be pressing the rail agency to declare when they have acquired new brake blocks – a matter he sees as “life or death”:

“The DA has seen a letter that was sent to PRASA on 22 January 2020, in which PRASA is ordered to urgently address this crisis after an unannounced inspection found that the regulator had ‘no new brake blocks available or in stock for the replacement of worn brake blocks on their [trains]‘.”

“The report revealed that train maintenance technicians and mechanics have to scratch amongst bins of used brake pads to find barely usable spares to replace severely worn ones. Pictures were sent to us, showing the bins which technicians desperately had to salvage parts from in order to keep trains running.”

Chris Hunsinger

More trouble on the tracks

PRASA was officially placed under administration back in December. The rail agency saw their interim board dissolved, and Bongisizwe Mpondo is acting as the official administrator. Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula made the judgement call. He said Prasa has “deep-rooted problems” and merely replacing an interim board with a permanent one wouldn’t solve anything.

Mpondo certainly has his work cut out for him. Prasa is seen as yet another mismanaged company that can match the likes of SAA and Eskom in its incompetency. His main tasks include accelerating interventions aimed at improving performance, and implementing a modernisation programme, focusing on fencing and signalling.