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The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) celebrates the 100th set of electrical trains manufactured locally. This is indeed a major milestone in the train and transport industry. We congratulate the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) in partnership with Gibela for manufacturing these beautiful and safe trains. 

SATAWU also celebrates South Africans for making history. As we were celebrating the 100th set of Isitimela Sabantu in EkuRhuleni today the 4th of July 2022, hundreds of young people revealed that they were taken to different countries like Brazil and India for training and later came back to  utilise the experience to build these trains from the stretch. We need more of these skilled workers in the train sector. 

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) is also pleased with job opportunities created for young people who are eligible workers as they will continue building the trains to be used the whole country. We will continue supporting PRASA in creating job opportunities especially for young black women, in particular.

PRASA is currently rebuilding railway stations throughout the country due to cable theft and vandalism. That led to poor service delivery in the train sector for our people. We now call on our people to work with us in maintaining our infrastructure. It has been very difficult for our members, workers and commuters generally to travel as many routes are currently suspended due to technical faults caused by cable theft, we call on everyone to protect these new trains so we can be a better country. We also   calling upon our law enforcement agencies to decisively deal with the perpetrators who are continuing to steal our infrastructure

We once again congratulate our members, workers, Gibela and PRASA for manufacturing Isitimela Sabantu. We wish to see more trains built and manufactured locally not just in South Africa but in Africa as a continent to boost our economy.

Issued by SATAWU