South Africa’s 'broken' railways to hire 5,000 security guards and ‘build a wall’

[John Ashworth]

South Africa’s railways are broken – now government plans to hire 5,000 security guards and ‘build a wall’

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula has announced several measures aimed at protecting the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (Prasa’s) valuable rail infrastructure, which has been heavily damaged due to theft and vandalism... One of the new initiatives will see Prasa build concrete walls along identified rail corridors and around substations as an additional measure to improve security. Mbalula said that these walls are set to be ‘impenetrable’ and ‘vandal proof’, will stand up to a height of four metres, and will be reinforced with additional security measures such as electric fences and CCTV equipment. He said that Prasa has also relooked at its security deployment strategies, including the armed response patrol patterns, and will be hiring thousands more security guards to protect the valuable infrastructure...