Vandalism, crime plague Benoni’s abandoned train station

The Benoni train station, once a thriving transport hub in Ekurhuleni, has been abandoned for the past six years. The station’s operations were paused with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, which curtailed people’s movements, and resulted in a spike in vandalism as train stations in Gauteng fell victim to cable thieves. Benoni station was not spared.

Trains were sent into storage, and only its broken-down buildings still stand. A security guard is deployed at the premises, but the area has become synonymous with crimes including bag snatching and the dumping of kidnapping victims. Mohamed* runs a small spaza shop from what was once the station’s ticket office.

He took it over from a fellow countryman who died during Covid. He said his only challenge is to pay a “protection fee” to police who sometimes harass him for not having a permit to run the spaza shop. The fee varies between R1,000 and R2,000, he said, and is collected fortnightly.

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“I pay them, and they protect me because this area is not safe, as you can see. I’m the only business operating here. The previous owner used to pay as well.

It’s a tradition,” he said. Mohamed said an illegal tavern next to his shop was closed down a few months ago by the Ekurhuleni metro police after several complaints of rapes, robberies and stabbing incidents involving customers. “This area is not safe,” he said.

“Criminals sometimes dump bodies here, and women are raped at night when they pass here from work.” Homeless people have taken over some of the station’s buildings. Bridget Mohlala said she and her boyfriend occupied one of the rooms to escape the dangers posed to them on the streets. She used to live under bridges in the area but moved to the station after surviving a stabbing and rape incident.

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