Theft and stone-throwing make up nearly 64% of Prasa security incidents - IOL

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has revealed that theft and stone throwing accounted for 60% of security incidents recorded by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) during the 2025/26 financial year.

Creecy revealed this when she was responding to parliamentary questions from MK Party MP Sizwe Nicholas Mlotshwa, who had asked about the R3.4 billion spent on security by Prasa when the security incidents increased from 929 in the prior year to more than 1,000 in the 2025/26 financial year.

Responding to Mlotshwa, Creecy said the verified number of security incidents for 2025/26 stood at 889, a 4.3% reduction, after Prasa incorrectly recorded power-failure events.

She said the analysis of the 889 recorded incidents indicated that theft remained the most significant contributor that accounted for 312 (35.1%) of all reported cases, followed by stone throwing with 256 (28.8%).

“This pattern highlights a critical safety and operational risk to rail services.”

Creecy also said malicious damage accounted for 143 incidents (16.1%) while other categories such as aggravated robbery, assault, bodies found, robbery, murder, attempted murder and rape collectively accounted for 178, which is less than 20%, of total incidents.”

There were 54 aggravated robbery incidents, 43 assaults, 40 bodies found, 29 robberies, 6 murders, three  attempted murders, and one rape.

“The data demonstrates that theft and stone throwing alone constitute nearly 64% of all incidents, underscoring the need for targeted security, law enforcement collaboration, community engagement, and preventative interventions focused on these two dominant incident categories.”

Creecy stated that Prasa deployed 10,632 security personnel, consisting of 4,342 in-sourced security personnel and 6,290 private security personnel.

“The hybrid model combines institutional capability with contracted capacity and directs resources and expenditure according to assessed risks, operational priorities and asset criticality.”

She said the R3.4 billion allocation for security accounted for 75.1% towards infrastructure network and stations while the remaining allocation supported trains, substations, armed response capabilities, depots and command centres.

“The allocation is reviewed periodically against crime trends, threat exposure, asset criticality and operational requirements.”

The minister also said the assessment of the effectiveness and value for money on the security expenditure was initiated by the Finance Compliance Unit when an independent service provider was appointed to conduct the assessment and provide an evaluation of the expenditure and associated delivery of service.

Creecy also said Prasa has historically recorded financial losses primarily in relation to cable theft, a category that represented the most significant contributor to security-related crime and infrastructure losses.

“For the 2025/26 financial year, recorded losses attributable to cable theft amounted to R344,000.”

She said reliable financial-data loss is not currently available for the remaining crime categories.”

“Once implemented, the reporting mechanism will support more accurate risk assessments, cost-benefit analyses and trend forecasting. It will also enable Prasa to prioritise security resources more effectively, evaluate the financial impact of security interventions and make evidence-based investment and deployment decisions.”

Creecy added that measures have been implemented to ensure that future security expenditure delivered measurable reductions in security incidents, operational losses and exposure to risk.

“Central to these measures is a move from a predominantly labour-intensive and static guarding arrangement towards an integrated, intelligence-led and technology-enabled security model,” she said.