A train driver was stabbed with a knife twice in his left hand after he tried to protect four female commuters of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). He was attacked by armed robbers whilst waiting at a red signal in the section on train 0727 between Durban and Berea Station in KwaZulu-Natal.
Francois Gouws (54), a train driver and member of the United National Transport Union (UNTU) for the past nine years, was waiting for the signal to indicate that he can continue of the route when he realised the commuters were being attacked and ran to assist them.
“The robbers stabbed me in my left hand twice with a knife. I am in terrible pain,” Gouws said to Steve Harris, General Secretary of UNTU. Gouws was taken to the St. Augustine’s Hospital by ambulance where he is being treated. Doctors fear that some of his nerves might have been damaged.
This is the first time that he was involved in an attack. “I am very traumatized. We always know it is dangerous and these incidents happen, but nothing can prepare you for the feeling you get when it happens to you,” Gouws said.
This comes a day after Metrorail, who is responsible for PRASA’s urban passenger commuter service, told Times Live that they are in the process of securing their railway tracks against illegal entry by constructing a wall that will cost R68 million. This wall will go up in areas where vandalism is at the highest, like the Netreg-Station in the Western Cape where UNTU train driver Piet Botha was shot dead in July last year.
In March this year UNTU filed an application in the Western Cape High Court for a court order to force PRASA to adhere to their Constitutional duty to protect its employees and the commuters of the passenger rail service.
PRASA is opposing the application, saying they are doing all that they can to protect commuters and employees, but can only do so much. PRASA is passing the buck to the South African Police Service (SAPS) who has a Constitutional duty to prevent crime and to protect the public.
UNTU has cited the SAPS as a party to the Court proceeding. The application has not yet been heard.
Issued on behalf of UNTU by Sonja Carstens, Media and Liaison Officer. For UNTU Press Statements phone 082 463 6806 or e-mail sonja@untu.co.za.
