Metrorail defends removal of train preacher, cites new design challenges

Cape Town Metrorail has defended the actions of its security officers after a video surfaced showing them intervening while a woman was preaching on a train in Cape Town.

The footage, which gained significant traction online, shows fellow passengers coming to the woman’s defence during the confrontation. However, PRASA spokesperson Raymond Maseko explained that the intervention was a matter of enforcing updated regulations necessitated by the infrastructure of modern rail sets.

According to Maseko, the coach-less design of the new trains means that loud sounds or music can no longer be contained within a single isolated area.

"In the older trains, we had coaches, so it was easier to contain activities in one set of a coach," Maseko said. "But the new trains, because of safety designs, we made them a continuous unit throughout. The rules have to then adapt."

PRASA emphasised that the enforcement was not a targeted attack on religious expression, but rather a necessity to ensure the comfort of the hundreds of commuters sharing the space.

"We are trying to strike a balance of providing a service to 1,200 people that are all in one room, so to speak," Maseko added. "You then need to understand some of the restrictions that we need to bring through."