The Railway Safety Regulator has in the past weeks been receiving media enquiries from the Rapport pertaining to allegations at Transnet. The allegations relate to Safety Critical Grades which the Rapport claimed to have evidence on. 

The latest media enquiry received from the Rapport was on Friday afternoon, 07 March 2014, and related to cheating at the School of Rail in the year 2010. The Rapport journalist, Mr Pieter Myburgh, said that allegations of cheating had been confirmed by Mr John Makhusha from the Transnet School of Rail. The RSR is in possession of an email sent by Mr Pieter Myburgh, wherein he quotes Mr John Makhusha as the person who confirmed the allegation of cheating at the School of Rail in 2010.

On Sunday, 09 March 2014, the Rapport printed an article wherein the RSR spokesperson, Ms Babalwa Mpendu, was quoted as confirming that fraud had been committed with the Transnet exams. The RSR places on record that at the time the Rapport article was published,   the RSR had not responded to the enquiry as internal verification on the issues raised had to be conducted. Based on the RSR’s internal records, the following can be confirmed: 

The RSR was informed on 3 August 2010 by the Head of the School of Rail (based in Esselen Park), Mr John Makhusha, about the alleged irregularities during an RSR assessment of safety critical positions at Transnet. In response to the allegations the RSR issued an improvement directive dated 6 August 2010 to TFR (Transnet Freight Rail) requesting them to address potential threats to safe railway operations issues detailed in the improvement directive. Subsequent to the issued improvement directive, TFR provided a response, dated 4 October 2010, detailing actions taken to address the issues identified in the improvement directive. However the RSR was not completely satisfied with TFR’s response and sent a follow up letter dated 26 January 2011 requesting additional action and a response from TFR.

TFR responded on 23 February 2011, providing the required actions and a response to the outstanding issues raised by the RSR. Pursuant to this response from TFR, the RSR issued a compliance letter to TFR advising that they had complied with the improvement directive and that no further action was required.  The matter was closed in 2011. The article published by the Rapport on Sunday, 09 March 2014 implied that the RSR had not taken any action in addressing the alleged irregularities that were reported in 2010 about the Transnet School of Rail. The article also highlighted human factors as the main cause of train accidents. In dealing with human factors, the RSR developed the Standard on Human Factors (SANS 3000-4) aimed at establishing minimum requirements for operators to manage human factors for employees who undertake safety-related work. The Standard was published in February 2011.

The purpose of HF Standard is to reduce occurrences attributable to human error, by optimising human capital, and by mitigating the risks associated with HF in the workplace to acceptable levels. It is a dynamic risk-driven process that applies to all operators. Over and above this, the RSR currently has projects on Certification of Safety Critical Grades and the accreditation of institutions that offer training on Safety Critical Grades. Safety Critical work refers to functions and activities related to the authorisation and control of the movement of rolling stock and the execution of the movement of rolling stock including the direct supervision of persons undertaking these functions and activities. The RSR’s Annual State of Safety Reports for the past five years shows that one of the principle contributory factors to railway occurrences is the lack of adequacy and competence of Safety Related and Safety Critical Grades amongst railway operators. Therefore the certification project has been initiated to ensure the creation and operation of an appropriate regulatory regime for the licencing or certification (or both) of Safety Related and Safety Critical Grades to systematically improve the safety of railway operations.

Recognition is given to the need for the development of a licencing or certification system (or both) for safety related and safety critical grades in the rail industry. To date, no form of certification or accreditation by a licensing authority was ever considered in the country; the Railway Safety Regulator will be the first to introduce this system in South Africa.