The Railway Safety Bill, which is currently before the Portfolio Committee Transport has received huge support from citizens of Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, during public hearings held in Bloemfontein today.
Free State is the eighth province to host the public hearings on the Bill following a countrywide extensive public consultation campaign by the committee that started last year. The next province where the committee is going to conduct public hearings on the Bill is the Western Cape.
The committee today held public hearings at the Auditorium Indaba Glass Palace where residents voiced their full support for the Bill which aims to enhance safety of the railway operations in South Africa.
The residents said the Bill must be able to root out crimes such as cable theft and vandalism of related railway infrastructure. They suggested that the Bill must make provision for the re-establishment of the railway police service to help improve railway safety.
The committee thanked the residents and assured them that all their inputs will be considered during the committee’s deliberations on the Bill after it has visited all nine provinces.
The committee calls on citizens who are unable to attend the public hearings to make oral submissions in their provinces to make written submissions on the Bill as the opportunity still exists. The details to submit written submissions can be found on the website of Parliament.
The Railway Safety Bill aims to amend the National Railway Safety Regulator Act 16 of 2002 by facilitating an improvement in general safety within the railway environment, and ensure that rail becomes an attractive mode of transport and contributes towards economic growth.
It also seeks to promote the harmonisation of the railway safety regime of the Republic of South Africa with the objectives and requirements for safe railway operations of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.