The South African railway industry had already been embattled prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which only exacerbated the industry’s security challenges and led to an increase of 240% in security-related incidents during 2020, Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) chairperson Boy Nobunga said on October 20.

“We have seen a significant increase in security-related vandalism and theft of infrastructure, which feeds into the overall performance of the sector,” he commented.

He attributed this increase to a lack of visible activities on site, such as commuting passengers, having made the infrastructure vulnerable, and that it provided an opportunity “for people that targeted the sector for their own nefarious activities”.

Employees working from home during the pandemic also meant that some engineers and technical assistants were not able to go into the field to address an issue, which Nobunga said “impacted negatively on the management of the sector as a whole”.

He lamented that the sector, as a whole, was “not doing enough” to ensure that it became proactive in reducing these incidents within the sector.

Commenting on whether the pandemic diluted the efficacy of previous interventions to try and improve rail safety, Nobunga reiterated the challenges working from home presented, though he added that considering that “things are almost back to normal”, the sector was hopeful the vaccination roll-out, in particular, would encourage the sector to re-implement some of the programmes that were in place to ensure improved safety in the sector.

“We believe that with that kind of intervention, we would be able to see a significant improvement that will take [the sector] above and beyond where the sector was at before the pandemic.”

“We’re beginning to move in the right direction, but because of these challenges within the sector, it has regressed and we're trying to intervene to ensure the safety of the sector,” he said.

Gautrain Management Agency CEO Willian Dachs, meanwhile, was more optimistic about the future from a safety point of view for the Gautrain, which was able to keep its “safety and security levels intact” throughout the various lockdowns.

“There have definitely been challenges around asset security, where the cable theft scenario remains a constant threat,” he noted.

Gautrain, however, has “been quite successful” in preventing cable theft through a number of measures, but Dachs lamented the number of attempts “still remains quite tight”.

Taking this into account, he suggested that the lower levels of ridership needed to be used as an opportunity to reflect on and improve asset maintenance, and ensure that systems were set up properly and safely, so that “it will be able to continue from where it was pre-pandemic”.

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), meanwhile, faced an entirely different range of problems in that it was still rebuilding its infrastructure.

PRASA group CEO Zolani Matthews lamented that the network “had consistently not had the kind of capital investment that it required pre-Covid”, adding to which were high incidences of theft and vandalism on the network and on the infrastructure across the country.

“This has meant that we've had to focus a lot of time and effort into rebuilding the infrastructure,” Matthews said.

While PRASA had not had the ability to run enough train sets to consistently be able to provide a regular service, he added that the removal of the security companies during the period just prior to the pandemic’s arrival was a “major contributory factor to the decline in ridership” alongside the inability to provide adequate services.

PRASA’s challenges had been with the entity “for some time”, Matthews stated, adding that the group was now focusing on “stabilising the business” which would be core to its ability to offer an effective train service.

Alluding to cable theft as an example, Matthews said PRASA was introducing a “much more comprehensive security strategy” aimed at reinforcing the security that it already has, while working in conjunction with other State-owned entities, like Eskom and Transnet, to “confront some of these challenges”.

Transnet, on the other hand, had a slightly different experience throughout the pandemic as it was still able to transport essential goods.

Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) CEO Sizakele Mzimela, however, noted that, during the hard lockdown period, Transnet had “seen very little incidents of theft and vandalism”, but this soon changed as lockdown levels four and three saw an increase in theft and vandalism on its lines.

This had had a significant impact on TFR’s ability to move critical export volumes, Mzimela lamented, noting that, on average, the entity recorded about 300 incidents of cable theft and vandalism every month.

Add theft of key infrastructure, such as substations and signalling systems and this number doubles to 600 incidents a month.

Over the last five years, Transnet has recorded a 177% increase in theft and vandalism.

“We have been fortunate from a freight business perspective in that we've had the ability to continue to operate during all of the different levels of the pandemic. But we've just seen an increasing challenge in relation to the amount of theft, which has had an impact on what we've been able to actually deliver from a volume expectation,” Mzimela explained.

TFR is also undertaking initiatives that are aligned to Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s initiatives and is increasing the entity’s use of technology.

“At this stage, we have to increase the number of people that support us on the ground, and this has led to a significant increase in how much security is needed,” Mzimela said.