Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member JP Smith says the city should speed up the process of taking over railway operations from Prasa.
Smith believes taking over operations from the rail agency will help the system in Cape Town.
On Friday afternoon a train at the Cape Town Railway station and two carriages at Firgrove Railway Station were set alight.
There have been a number of incidents involving vandalism with trains in recent months.
The trainees are confident they will stop the numerous criminal acts aboard trains.
“We also have close combat training so firearms will be a last resort,” said trainee Silulami Nomtayi.
“We first start with minimum force, which is your baton, your pepper spray, then if need be your firearm.”
“We have been seeing in the news that people are getting murdered on the trains, we are there now to stop that and we will probably stop it.”
Close to R50-million is being spent on this pilot project but the cash-strapped Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa has yet to pay their R16-million share.
The officers will be deployed in October.
Source: eNCA
