Prasa on Thursday confirmed that it has been granted a temporary Safety Permit by the Rail Safety Regulator (RSR) for the rail service.
This was after RSR did not renew the operator’s licence when it expired on Tuesday.
Prasa board of control chairperson, Khanyisile Kweyama, said Prasa was pleased that an agreement had been reached with the RSR, as the temporary reprieve would allow the safety regulator to scrutinise submission for the renewal of the safety permit application.
“Prasa takes the operation of a state rail system as an integral part of Prasa’s statutory mandate. We have been working hard to ensure that the improvement of safety is placed at its rightful place, and with the time given to us by RSR we would make sure that management addresses all the safety issues they have identified.”
Kweyama said Prasa found it impracticable to cease operations over the past 32 hours as they had expected either the grant of the safety permit or the extension of the previous safety permit to allow the RSR to consider the renewal application ceasing operation and that would have affected almost 2 million commuters.
RSR spokesperson Madelein Williams said the RSR had issued Prasa with a Contravention Notice for operating trains on Wednesday without being in possession of a valid safety permit.
This permit would be valid from 2 August to 31 August 2018.
“It is the view of the RSR that the issuance of a Temporary Safety Permit will assist Prasa in continuing with their operations, but most importantly, provide Prasa with another opportunity to develop robust action plans that will address the identified inadequacies,” Williams said.