International Railroad Discussion > South Africa: 'Speeding' Shosholoza Meyl stopped in its tracks

The Shosholoza Meyl, a long-distance train service operated by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), has been ordered to stop operating with immediate effect.
This follows a fatal train crash=medium</a> on February 12, which left one man dead and several others injured when a goods and passenger train collided on the tracks near Bonny Doone Road in Horizon View, west of Johannesburg.

https://www.news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica/News/speeding-shosholoza-meyl-stopped-in-its-tracks-following-fatal-crash-20200219

I have a friend in SA who recently retired from Transnet or whatever it's called now. He shares my opinion from what I have observed and read  (I'm on a SA Rail discussion group) that the former great South African Railways is a shadow of it's former self, plagued by miss management, corruption, incompetence by it's staff and theft. Readers can draw their own conclusions as to why that is. 

Here's a photo posted by a member of the South African Railways group showing exactly what I'm talking about.  The last few days discussions have been largely related to copper theft bring trains to a standstill. Fires set in station such as this poor building are also a common theme. So sad what has happened down there. In the air, SAA is bankrupt. Sure the pandemic is partly to blame.  Their lock downs there make other country's policies look like child's play. Even ex pats aren't allowed into their own country. But it also suffered many of the same problems as the railway...only it's theft was the monetary kind, not infrastructure. And yet the incompetent SA government puts up with it all and does nothing to correct the situation. 

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They had only been running again for 3 months having recommenced in November the year before...
https://trainreview.com/news/south-africa-restores-suspended-long-distance-trains