The South African Police Service must explain why criminals destroying transport infrastructure are not being arrested for malicious damage to property and brought before the courts, the United National Transport Union (Untu) said.

On Thursday night, disgruntled commuters set alight four train coaches at the Thornton railway station between Cape Town and Bellville.

“This comes after Metrorail in Cape Town has been struggling the whole week to deliver its services after it had to suspend all train services in the region to permit urgent repair work on its trains after vandals did extensive damage to it,” Untu general secretary Steve Harris said in a statement.

“Enough is enough. The South African Police Service (SAPS) owes an explanation to the country’s taxpayers as to why these criminals are not being arrested for malicious damage to property and brought before the courts where they would face severe sentences if found guilty,” he said.

The SAPS could no longer hide behind the excuse that it was the responsibility of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to guard its assets.

“This is a national crisis that is escalating with every passing day. The coaches cost millions and belong to a state-owned enterprise funded with taxpayers’ money. The SAPS acted when statues all over South Africa where being vandalised by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters in April last year. The police have a constitutional obligation to act now,” Harris said.

The setting alight of train coaches had plunged Prasa into an unprecedented and existential crisis. The passenger railway operator could not deliver proper services because 40 percent of its fleet was not in service.

During the first six months of this financial year, 375 coaches where vandalised – up from 250 of 2015/16.

This had resulted in a shortage of train sets. Prasa could provide only 248 train sets per day against a requirement of 287. Of these, 56 percent had short formations.

“Couple this with the increase in security incidents on assets by 16 percent year-on-year and incidents involving passengers showing an increase of 53 percent year-on-year for the first six months of 2016/17 and you will realise why Metrorail lost a quarter or 73 million of its paying passengers in the first six months of 2016/17.

“If the SAPS allow this trend to continue, Prasa will collapse. It is of national importance that the SAPS must act now,” Harris said.

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