Mahlabathini residents halt train services
Community members claim too many deaths have occurred on the railway line and demand the line be fenced off.
Over 100 protesters blocked the railway line in Ntilingwe/Langakazi in Mahlabathini today, preventing the train from operating today.
Residents claim too many people have been killed by trains, as have their livestock. Their demand is that Transnet fence off the railway tracks, especially around areas where homes exist, as a means to prevent an increase in the ‘death toll’.
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SAPS officials had to be deployed to the scene, after community members set tyres alight on the railway tracks. Since then, Transnet management, members of Council and traditional leaders have been to the scene of the protest. According to sources, they have all pleaded with the community to remain calm, saying their complaints would be attended to.
Shortly before residents dispersed, Transnet scheduled a community meeting at the Ntilingwe Community Hall on September 6, where the General Manager from Transnet’s Head Office in Pretoria would sit down with community representatives and discuss a way forward.
At present, the halted train has not moved as railway experts are checking for any damage which may have occurred, while tyres were being burned on the tracks.
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