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The city’s Fire and Rescue Service responds to a train that caught fire at Steenberg Train Station on June 18, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. No injuries have been reported and the cause of the fire is unknown. (Photo by Gallo Images / Brenton Geach).
During a parliamentary appearance, it was clear that the new Prasa board has a long way to go to solve the vandalism and governance problems that affect the entity.
“We are here for a month, but it seems like a long time,” said Leonard Ramatlakane, the newly appointed chairman of the board of the South African Passenger Rail Agency (Prasa). In a virtual meeting on Tuesday, November 24, Prasa’s board of directors and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula addressed Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) about the agency’s current situation.
The meeting was a follow-up to one with Scopa in November 2019, when MPs lashed out at Prasa for its lack of governance and record keeping and high levels of theft and vandalism. in a February 2020 At the follow-up meeting, Prasa officials were again criticized for vandalism and governance problems at the agency.
But a lot has happened since Prasa’s previous appearance before the committee. In December 2019, Mbalula removed the interim board and appointed Bongisizwe Mpondo as an agency administrator. The #UniteBehind coalition of activists later asked the courts to revoke Mpondo’s appointment because they believed due process had not been followed. In August 2020, Western Cape Superior Court ruled in favor of # UniteBehind: Mpondo had been illegally named.
At the end of October deadline by court order To appoint a new board, former ANC MP Ramatlakane was appointed the new chairman of the control board, while vandalism and theft of rail infrastructure had increased in South Africa.
Naked: looting until nothing remains of the Gauteng railway network
On Tuesday, Ramatlakane and his team led by Acting CEO Thandeka Mabija relayed the entity’s finances. The entity’s irregular spending stood at R1.3 billion (due to supply chain management issues and competitive bidding processes, which were not followed). The Office of the Auditor General identified wasteful and fruitless expenditures of R48 million, which relate to incorrect interest, penalties and fees for Sunday work. Prasa had a loss of R2.3 billion in the financial year 2019/2020.
Prasa also received another disclaimer audit from the Auditor General, for incomplete governance records, financial mismanagement, poor record keeping, and instability in key leadership positions. It was the second year in a row that Prasa had received a disclaimer on its audit findings.
On Tuesday, Mbalula told Scopa that Prasa was on the right track and that the department and the new board were “addressing sheer criminality” at the agency. Mbalula said the highest priority would be for the board to focus on Prasa’s security plan to accelerate the recovery of the beleaguered rail service.
But MPs were concerned. “What worries me, since the last time, is that there has been no change,” said Benedicta van Minnen of the district attorney. Alf Lees from the party said the vandalism on the rail system was “disgusting” and wanted to know what was being done to remedy it.
Acting CEO Mabija said Prasa was in the process of employing armed security guards to combat vandalism and investing in security infrastructure such as drones.
When asked about the legality of the decisions made by Mpondo, which included the hiring and firing of executives and the creation of Prasa’s security plan, Mbalula said: “The court did not rule on any other matter besides the appointment; all decisions remain valid unless overturned by the court. ”
However, Ramatlakane said the board was compiling a list of decisions made by Mpondo and that if there were gray areas, the board would “apply our minds to those decisions.”
Also present at the meeting was attorney Andy Mothibi, the head of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), who told the committee that investigations into governance and corruption in Prasa should be complete by March 2021.
In August 2019 President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation that allowed the SIU to investigate contracts signed since 2010, to investigate irregular payments and to investigate allegations of employee misconduct. Mothibi asked if a meeting could be scheduled to broadcast a “full presentation” on the progress of the SIU investigation.
Scopa President Mkhuleko Hlengwa said a meeting would be scheduled for the new year and plans are underway for an investigation by the committee.
Hlengwa said that Prasa should be taken seriously as “most of our people depend on him” and due to “chaos and nonsense” as well as looting and destruction, Prasa should remain on the committee’s radar. DM
