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

[The_Librarian]

In the old days police would shoot first and ask questions later.

Now the criminals have the best of both worlds, they can continue with their nefarious business of stripping critical infra, and the police can do zippo.

 

[DreamKing]

"build a wall" .......

that is racist, you know.

 

[Nerfherder]

Most effective policing is to get the local community to take a level of ownership and pride. This has been proven with charity infrastructure projects all over the world.

For example, the Firgrove train station outside of Somerset West is now a pile of bricks. The local community did not care, including the Somerset West residents nearby.

I live opposite the Van Der Stel station and we have been proactive in reporting vandalism. While the station continues to be targeted, it has faired extremely well with minimal damage & theft. The security at the station know they can call for assistance from private security and when not on duty, the private security and community will keep an eye on the station.

Its so odd how the trains are targets so much but they are so useful for the poor.

Almost as though someone is trying to keep them poor.

 

[Lupus]

If these were functioning as they were, goods would be a lot cheaper.

 

[Nerfherder]

"build a wall" .......

that is racist, you know.

So the actual problem is the same as the Trump wall : You can't actually build enough walls that are big enough and strong enough to be useful.

I think hiring enough security is probably the better option. It solves more than one problem.
1: Keep an eye on the infrastructure, actively protect what we have.
2: Prevent crime at the stations and on the rails. Make it safe and reliable again.
3: Stop free loaders !

 

[TelkomUseless]

Hillarious. Let everything go to waste , "catch a wake up", and now fix it (in a **** way). Never pro-active, aways re-active.

Just like electricity planning, the riots earlier this year....

 

[mojoman]

So the actual problem is the same as the Trump wall : You can't actually build enough walls that are big enough and strong enough to be useful.

I think hiring enough security is probably the better option. It solves more than one problem.
1: Keep an eye on the infrastructure, actively protect what we have.
2: Prevent crime at the stations and on the rails. Make it safe and reliable again.
3: Stop free loaders !

70,000 odd soldiers twiddling thumbs out there...We all saw them during lockdown last year...where are they now?
Give them some exercise and something to do.....

 

[Nerfherder]

70,000 odd soldiers twiddling thumbs out there...We all saw them during lockdown last year...where are they now?
Give them some exercise and something to do.....

101%

They could definitely play a part. They are getting paid anyway.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Its so odd how the trains are targets so much but they are so useful for the poor.

Almost as though someone is trying to keep them poor.

Exactly.

My station is the most used by the community and I've never seen any criminal activity from the commuters.

When trains are late, they don't burn down the station, instead, the entire platform goes dead silent as you see the concern on their faces if they will get fired today for being late.

When thugs get caught at the station, cops bring the meat wagon. When we had an arson attack, it was someone external who petrol-bombed the carriage and there was no looting for scrap metal afterwards.

I've felt strongly that there is a strong motivation to keep them poor and what better way than to hit their transport.

 

[mojoman]

101%

They could definitely play a part. They are getting paid anyway.

Probably too kak scared to go on patrol anyway.,...

 

[AstroTurf]

Also need to make scrap yards as hard to resgister as getting a gun licence here....

Only copper mines should be allowed to export copper from South Africa.

No scrap copper may be exported from South Africa.

Will take copper theft down by 90%

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[Nerfherder]

Exactly.

My station is the most used by the community and I've never seen any criminal activity from the commuters.

When trains are late, they don't burn down the station, instead, the entire platform goes dead silent as you see the concern on their faces if they will get fired today for being late.

When thugs get caught at the station, cops bring the meat wagon. When we had an arson attack, it was someone external who petrol-bombed the carriage and there was no looting for scrap metal afterwards.

I've felt strongly that there is a strong motivation to keep them poor and what better way than to hit their transport.

I also see a lot of people talking about "they" when we have criminal/terror type activity. So its the attitude that the people who need the trains are the same people who burn them.

Like one guy steals cable but its the "poor blacks" who are at fault. People can't see that the there is a massive separation between the people who use and need these things and the people that destroy them.

 

[Nerfherder]

Only copper mines should be allowed to export copper from South Africa.

No scrap copper may be exported from South Africa.

Will take copper theft down by 90%

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or you put a massive levvy on exported scrap. Use the levy to fix the infrastructure.