POLICE are investigating attempted murder and malicious damage to property cases after a goods train travelling to Queenstown derailed early yesterday morning.
Police spokeswoman Captain Ursula Roelfse yesterday confirmed that a train driver and his assistant were injured when the train derailed in Molteno at 4am yesterday.
They were taken to hospital, treated for minor injuries and discharged.
It is alleged that residents had tampered with the railway line a few weeks ago, but police were unable to confirm whether or not it was the cause of the derailment.
Roelfse said the incident happened about a kilometre outside Molteno Station towards Queenstown. “We know that there had been issues with the community sabotaging the railway lines in the area, however, we cannot link that to the train accident at this moment,” Roelfse said.
“We are investigating a new incident and investigations will show whether the accident was caused by someone and whether we need to make any arrests.”
There have been a number of service delivery protests in the area in recent months. Community leader Luzuko Yalezo yesterday confirmed the community had previously been responsible for removing rail tracks and preventing trains from travelling past the area saying, “we wanted to draw attention to our plight”.
But he distanced the disgruntled residents from the incident. “The tracks were fixed a few days ago and trains were moving smoothly and there is nothing linking our community to such an accident.”
The Dispatch was shown pictures of a damaged railroad taken two weeks ago with residents sitting on the track. Yalezo said protests started last July when residents complained about poor service delivery and allegations of nepotism and fraud at the Inkwanca Municipality.
“We last year submitted a petition to the local government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane asking him to investigate various allegations against our municipality management.
“The MEC sanctioned a forensic investigation which confirmed that there are corrupt activities taking place in our council,” said Yalezo.
Action was then recommended against senior municipal administrators, but Yalezo said nothing came of it.
In a written response to a DA parliamentary query last month, Qoboshiyane said he had approached the courts in a bid to enforce recommendations of the forensic investigation.
Transnet freight rail spokesman Mike Asefovitz yesterday confirmed that a goods train was involved in the accident and that two employees had been taken to hospital.
“We had problems in the area in the past few weeks where our trains were stoned by protesting community members and rail lines being tampered with, resulting in some of our services failing to take place.
“However, at this moment, we cannot link the community protests to yesterday’s incident.”
He said an investigation into the accident would shed more light on the cause.
Asefovitz confirmed that services had been disrupted in the past few weeks and that rail passengers travelling from East London to Johannesburg over the past long weekend had to be ferried by bus from East London to Molteno where they then boarded the train to their destinations.
Qoboshiyane could not be reached for comment yesterday. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
E Cape train derails weeks after line sabotage
Police spokeswoman Captain Ursula Roelfse yesterday confirmed that a train driver and his assistant were injured when the train derailed in Molteno at 4am yesterday.
They were taken to hospital, treated for minor injuries and discharged.
It is alleged that residents had tampered with the railway line a few weeks ago, but police were unable to confirm whether or not it was the cause of the derailment.
Roelfse said the incident happened about a kilometre outside Molteno Station towards Queenstown. “We know that there had been issues with the community sabotaging the railway lines in the area, however, we cannot link that to the train accident at this moment,” Roelfse said.
“We are investigating a new incident and investigations will show whether the accident was caused by someone and whether we need to make any arrests.”
There have been a number of service delivery protests in the area in recent months. Community leader Luzuko Yalezo yesterday confirmed the community had previously been responsible for removing rail tracks and preventing trains from travelling past the area saying, “we wanted to draw attention to our plight”.
But he distanced the disgruntled residents from the incident. “The tracks were fixed a few days ago and trains were moving smoothly and there is nothing linking our community to such an accident.”
The Dispatch was shown pictures of a damaged railroad taken two weeks ago with residents sitting on the track. Yalezo said protests started last July when residents complained about poor service delivery and allegations of nepotism and fraud at the Inkwanca Municipality.
“We last year submitted a petition to the local government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane asking him to investigate various allegations against our municipality management.
“The MEC sanctioned a forensic investigation which confirmed that there are corrupt activities taking place in our council,” said Yalezo.
Action was then recommended against senior municipal administrators, but Yalezo said nothing came of it.
In a written response to a DA parliamentary query last month, Qoboshiyane said he had approached the courts in a bid to enforce recommendations of the forensic investigation.
Transnet freight rail spokesman Mike Asefovitz yesterday confirmed that a goods train was involved in the accident and that two employees had been taken to hospital.
“We had problems in the area in the past few weeks where our trains were stoned by protesting community members and rail lines being tampered with, resulting in some of our services failing to take place.
“However, at this moment, we cannot link the community protests to yesterday’s incident.”
He said an investigation into the accident would shed more light on the cause.
Asefovitz confirmed that services had been disrupted in the past few weeks and that rail passengers travelling from East London to Johannesburg over the past long weekend had to be ferried by bus from East London to Molteno where they then boarded the train to their destinations.
Qoboshiyane could not be reached for comment yesterday. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
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