On top of a moving train

Talking of the dangers A NEW game is catching on in the townships. Train surfing is endangering the lives of many teenagers, and Metrorail, in an effort to curb this dangerous sport, has come up with an educational programme in partnership with the department of education. An educational projects manager, Dolly Gaelesewe, visits schools to talk to schoolchildren about the dangers of train surfing. Gaelesewe's task is to "convert" the transgressors to stop their risky behaviour. "It's not that the programme will ever make them stop, but we are trying our level best to educate the teenagers by showing them graphic and scary slides of victims of train surfing gone wrong." Metrorail security guards identify the surfers by their school uniforms; Gaelesewe then visits those schools where culprits are identified. "We also meet with the boys' parents but, in most cases, parents are in the dark that their children surf trains when they are going to school." The railway operator keeps a record of all incidents of surfing accidents but Gaelesewe says the statistics are for internal use only. In the past month, there have been no reported incidents of train surfers being electrocuted or maimed, she says. "Train surfing is performed by boys only and girls stand on the sidelines ululating." Gaelesewe says the educational project is showing signs of success, with fewer incidents of deaths and injuries being reported. RELATED LINKS: A train from Soweto A RIDE on a train from the sprawling township of Soweto is an experience of a lifetime. Read more Metrorail operations TRAINS are the cheapest form of public transport in Johannesburg. The downside is that while the city has sprawled to the north, the only lines run south of the centre, from the East Rand through to Soweto and Randfontein in the far west. Read more Gauteng's bullet train gamble THE Gautrain is now a serious proposition, with work likely to begin in 18 months, and completed in 2006. But the big question is whether a public accustomed to travelling by road will make the switch to rail in large enough numbers to make the Gautrain viable. Read more Soweto, city of contrasts SOWETO is a city of contrasts: luxurious mansions across the road from tin shanties, green fields and streams around the corner from piles of garbage, BMWs with a single passenger parked at traffic lights alongside battered minibus taxies jam-packed with passengers, and a friendliness and cheerfulness that disguises a high unemployment rate. Read more

Train surfing thrills bored youngsters Like an addict constantly looking for a high, Soweto's young train surfers are driven by the exhilaration of cheating death time and again. October 3, 2006 By Ndaba Dlamini TSHEPISO Ntohla, aka Mzembe, is 18 years old – and he loves surfing the Soweto trains. He knows it's dangerous but the thrill keeps drawing him back to perform perilous stunts on moving trains to the cheers of his peers. Sporting a fancy cap and occasionally sipping a beer, Ntohla says he began surfing trains, or ukudlala istaff, when he was very young. He started with the most common surfing stunt, which involves jumping off a moving train and jumping back on board again. "No-one taught me to surf. I just observed what some of the bigger boys were doing and copied. But I started serious surfing in 2000 when I began doing daring stunts," he says, throwing a pompous glance at his fellow practitioners, 24-year-old Nkosinami Mazibuko and Zanele Masinda. There are different ways of surfing the train besides jumping on and off, says Ntohla. The most dangerous is hanging precariously from the bottom of a moving train with the steel wheels and the rails only a few centimetres away. Another suicidal stunt involves climbing on to the roofs of coaches and dodging high-voltage cables, pylons and bridges. "I love doing the viva la raza, standing on top and shaking my shoulders like Eddie Guerrero, the wrestler, and watching cables and pylons zip past my face at a break-neck speed," he boasts. But it's a dangerous past-time and several youngsters have died while train surfing. Ntohla replies: "Yes, it is dangerous, and sometimes I have felt a choking fear grip me, especially when I am surfing under the train. But there is no space for fear in this game and one has to shrug the feeling off." A scar runs from Ntohla's right eye to the centre of his forehead, telling the tale of an accident some months back when he was surfing a train from Naledi to Johannesburg. He displays it with pride, saying the incident did not dent his passion. "I do it for my pride, for the girls and for fun. Sometimes girls cheer us on and tell us they will come and eat salads at our funerals. But I am not scared of death … A few months back during the security guards' strike, a boy living three houses away died surfing a train. He was young and inexperienced. His name was Lwazi but his death has not deterred us even a little bit." At Lwazi's funeral, his fellow surfers performed stunts on top of the buses carrying mourners to Avalon Cemetery in Soweto as a farewell gesture. The surfers' favourite train is Number 9323. "It is convenient to surf this train because it is always moving fast with very few delays and it is always packed," says Ntohla, who adds that the past-time originated in Mzimhlophe, a township in Soweto. And the "stars" have given themselves fancy nicknames, like Bitch Nigga, Bin Laden, Mrider and Sisqo. There are also two kinds of surfers, the "cheeseboys" and the "mvonqas". "The cheeseboys surf for fun while the mvonqas surf to get away from the guards after stealing bags or cellphones from commuters. I am a cheeseboy," Ntohla says smugly. Sometimes surfers are caught by the security guards, who beat them up. "Sometimes they make us do gym exercises." During the recent security guards' strike, three young men died and many more were injured. Trains were left unguarded and surfers grabbed the opportunity to up their game. Dimi Raphoto from Cinga Productions also saw an opportunity and produced a documentary about the lives of these daredevils. Using a small camera, she captured some outstanding images of these teenagers dicing with death for the SABC3 television actuality programme, Special Assignment, called Soweto Surfing. "This is a new phenomenon that is growing by the day in Johannesburg," Raphoto says. "It's dangerous, senseless and is killing many kids." It took her two months to do the research necessary for her documentary, and a further two months to film the youngsters performing their stunts. "We interviewed the boys, their parents, principals, girlfriends and relatives. But what struck me was their background. They don't have swimming pools in their homes, they don't have any places of entertainment and this is their way of entertaining themselves." Lwazi died during the filming of the documentary and Raphoto says this should have been the turning point for the teenage surfers. "But Lwazi's death seemed to spur them on." Ntohla stars in the documentary and says one day he is going to stop his dangerous hobby. "But not in the near future," he adds, fingering the scar on his face. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za