• HOME
  • WHO WE ARE
    • Our History
    • Achievements
    • Aims and Objectives
    • External Links
  • LEADERSHIP
    • National Office Bearers
    • Provincial Office Bearers
    • National Sector Coordinators
    • Heads of Departments
  • SECTORS
    • Transport Services
      • Rail
        • Freight (Transnet)
        • Passenger (Prasa)
      • Passenger Transport
        • Buses
        • Taxis
      • Freight and Goods Transport
    • Maritime Transport
    • Civil Aviation
    • Transport Infrastructure Services
      • Tollgates and Road Management
    • Property Services
    • Contract Security
    • Contract Cleaning
    • General Support Services
  • MEDIA CENTER
    • News
    • Galleries
      • Not Silent, Not Violent
      • ITG Global Women’s Conference
      • #Bring Back Our Girls Campaign
    • Publications
  • MEMBERS AREA
    • Why Join SATAWU
    • Who can join SATAWU?
    • Benefits of joining SATAWU
    • Download Constitution
    • Download Application Form
  • CONTACT
  • Cookie Policy (ZA)

SATAWU Demands Safety for Prasa’s Woman Train Drivers

August 12, 2019Zanele SabelaPassenger (Prasa), Press ReleasesNo comments

South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) welcomes the launch of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s war room but believes the parastatal missed an opportunity to assure its staff – women staff in particular – that it is concerned for their safety.

Launching the war room last Thursday, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula outlined three focus areas – Service Recovery which involves the availability and reliability of trains and infrastructure; fast tracking the implementation of Modernisation Programme which aims to see Prasa spend its allocated capital expenditure toward the betterment of the system; and Safety Management which pertains to protecting the agency’s trains, railways, signaling and most importantly its commuters.

This is all well and good but we believe Prasa missed an opportunity to assure the people at the coalface of its challenges that it cares about their well-being. Daily, train drivers, both male and female, contend with Prasa’s aging infrastructure, faulty train sets, cable theft and manual authorisation due to the less than optimum signaling system. But unlike their male colleagues, women drivers often have to fend off society’s sexist beliefs including the ever-present threat of sexual violence.

Given the current state of Prasa’s operation, a train driver counts herself lucky if she is allocated a fully-functional train set twice during a five-day work week. What that means is for the remainder of week, she has to resign herself to fact the train she is driving will breakdown at some point. When that happens, she has to steel herself for the insults commuters hail at her as she leaves the drivers cabin to fix whatever mechanical failure has caused the breakdown. All drivers are trained on first-line maintenance and are expected to assess the extent of the problem before calling for back up.

It is while outside the confines of the driver’s cabin that these skilled women experience the harshest harassment. Frustrated with the delays, commuters often blame the driver. Incidentally, this is also the point at which sexist attitudes rear their ugly head. Drivers are often told the train is stuck because they cannot drive as they are women. Worse still, there are female commuters who hold the same view.

Scarier still is the prospect of a commuter mob ganging up on a lone driver. Last year’s horrific incident of commuters stripping a woman driver naked and dragging her to the bushes before security guards saved her is a haunting reminder of just how dangerous the job can be. In addition, female drivers are often subjected to inappropriate touching and unwanted comments about their bodies. Some drivers have been assaulted by commuters, while another was forced to skip a signal at gunpoint. As if that wasn’t traumatic enough, Prasa suspended the driver for skipping the signal even though he had informed the control centre. For all the abuse drivers suffer at the hands of commuters, they are routinely suspended if they retaliate or go against stipulated rules. So at any given point during what ordinarily would be considered a crisis, drivers are forced to weigh up personal safety against job security.

To mitigate the unfair conditions train drivers work under, workers demand the following:

  • Prasa must do away with manual authorisation because under abnormal working drivers are not allowed to exceed the stipulated maximum speed of 30km per hour, resulting in delays, which frustrate commuters. Fortunately, this demand falls squarely within the war room’s focus area of accelerating the Modernisation Programme.
  • Prasa must secure its railway lines with fencing to keep out undesirable elements and mitigate cable theft, which contributes to breakdowns and delays.
  • Prasa must increase visible security on its trains and railways by reinforcing its Protection Services Unit. However, in doing so Prasa must be mindful of the vulnerability of the female members of this unit and desist from posting them unaccompanied, particularly at night, as this exposes them to grave personal risk.

For more details or media interviews contact:

Zanele Sabela, SATAWU Media Officer, 011 403 2077

 

Tags: Modernisation programme, Prasa, Prasa War Room, Protection Services, Safety, Woman Train Drivers

Related Articles

Uncertain Future for Autopax Employees

January 28, 2020Zanele Sabela

April 21, 2022Vuyani Valashiya

SATAWU Welcomes Suspension of Prasa Western Cape Manager

February 13, 2020Zanele Sabela

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn More About Us

  • Our History
  • Scope of the Union
  • Aims and Objectives
  • Achievements

Get in Touch

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

News Report

  • (no title)
  • UPDATE: UNPAID SALARIES BY THE NORTH WEST PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
  • NORTH WEST PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT TO PAY OUTSTANDING SALARIES
  • SATAWU MET WITH THE MANAGEMENT OF TRANSNET
  • SATAWU ON PUTCO SUSPENDING ITS SERVICES
Copyright@2018 SATAWU
Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}