Where is the Faith

At first I found it extremely entertaining to read that there are some individuals who describe Pick n Pay’s – very annoying – Stikeez satanic.

To add to this there are those who say the Charlie-Charlie-game is demonic, with some “victims” of Charlie claiming to have seen the small demon that ruined their lives.

My initial reaction to both was to laugh, but then I sat still and my conservative-self questioned my liberal-self: do we really have so little faith, in ourselves and our creator to believe anything and almost everything is satanic?

I got to answer myself that some individuals will find everything satanic if it does not say Amen Hallelujah to their liking.

Stikeez are not the first toy – nor will it be the last – we also had the Pokemon chips and they were not only way more exciting to play with and collect, they were also cheaper. 

Instead of spending R150 or more at the shop to get one Stikeez, for the Pokemon chips you only had to buy a packet of chips for R1,50 and like a surprise bag in it you get a pokemon.

Charlie is also not the first game to be called demonic, and it won’t be the last. Ironically enough 20 years there was also Pinky. Now I can’t recall everything, but vaguely remember some fellow students telling me Pinky is going to kill us and that I was scared for days. Writing this and thinking about it, reminds me of how silly I was to believe those stories. There was no media coverage for Pinky, and if someone actually died because of it, Riaan Cruywagen and Mariette Kruger would surely have told us in those days…

Back to Stikeez and Charlie……

I did some reading on the Charlie-Charlie game and watched a documentary one afternoon, where someone from the KwaZulu-Natal Science Centre gave a really good scientific answer to the game.

It thus makes me wonder why Charlie cannot just be a game. Why can’t Stikeez just be a toy for kids?

Do we really have so little faith, that we only see [make everything] negative?

Considering almost 80% of South Africa’s 54 million citizens are Christians I expected my fellow Christians to have a little more faith than to classify everything that does not look like an angle as satanic with demonic powers.

Metrorail not [really] the bad guy

I have been following the closure of Gouda station like a hawk and those saying Metrorail deliberately made Worcester train not stop at Gouda station is misleading.

The fact is that the Railway Safety Regulator issued PRASA with a Prohibition Directive to suspend station operations at Gouda Station. The most important thing of this closure is that it comes after a complaint by a member of the public was lodged. This shows the power we as commuters do indeed hold.

Metrorail Western Cape received information of the directive less than 60 minutes before that train had to depart Cape Town station. 

I am personally aware that arrangements were made late that evening to ensure that buses and staff be available at the affected station. My concern that buses not move from Gouda to Wellington – as initially communicated – but still stop at the four stations in between was also addressed and implemented the next morning.

 

Prasa has meanwhile reacted stating that work at the station will start in January 2016. 

Now with the recently released Public Protector “Derailed” report on Prasa one should be relieved that there is money in the current financial year to make the improvements. Apart from the health hazard, our concern should be the four/five buses currently used to transport the ± 200 commuters between Gouda and Wellington - that must still stop at the four stations in between.

I reckon Metrorail is unable to sustain the operating of these buses until upgrades at Gouda station is completed in (for arguments sake) April/May 2016. Important to note Metrorail already has a limited number of buses available, plus there is a similar situation playing itself out on the Southern Line, although the effect is much lesser on those commuters.

Monday 7 September buses had to go from Gouda to Vlottenberg/Stellebosch because of the technical problem there and I know Metrorail tried their very best to get it there as soon as possible. But let's face the reality Metrorail will not always be able to recover the service within two hours, as was the case on 7 September.

So how did the RSR get to their decision and why are commuters from Gouda not informed? Well the Railway Safety Inspectors did an inspection on 26 April 2013. As a result of the inspection, an Improvement Directive was issued. The investigation highlighted that:

• The height of the passenger platform in use on the eastern side of Gouda station does not conform to the prescribed passenger platform specifications.
• There are no shelters and ablution facilities to cater for commuters on the passenger/commuter platform.
• Platform surface is in a very poor condition and has big hole which poses a hazard to commuters.
• Fence around the station is in a poor condition and that makes the station vulnerable to people accessing the station without authority or/and valid tickets (trespassers).
• Platform was very dark due to insufficient lighting at the station.

PRASA’s response was that Gouda Station was a Transnet Freight Rail owned station and leased to PRASA and therefore they can do very little to address the threats. According to their agreement Gouda Station is solely used by commuters. 

Although PRASA lease the station, it is PRASA's responsibility to implement and adhere to all safety laws, codes, standards and regulations to ensure safe railway operations.

It is indeed true that Prasa has done very little to address the issues highlighted and therefor the directive was given and is effective immediately. 

The directive will only be revoked when PRASA has satisfactorily demonstrated to the RSR that the immediate threats no longer exist.

In my opinion the Railway Safety Regulator was not fair towards Metrorail – who now looks like the bad guys. Even if Metrorail Western Cape received that directive earlier it would still not be enough notice period to say a station should close. It also raises another thing: when the RSR said immediate effect, what exactly was meant, as this gave Metrorail no time to communicate to commuters.