33 Prasa employees suspended over R3.5bn irregular tender awarded to Swifambo Rail

About 33 employees of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) have been suspended and are facing disciplinary action over the awarding of the R3.5 billion irregular contract to Swifambo Rail Leasing to supply locomotives to the beleaguered rail agency.

Prasa board chairperson, Leonard Ramatlakane, revealed this on Wednesday during a media briefing in Johannesburg.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, Prasa’s board and executive management briefed the media on interventions undertaken by the parastatal to recover and stabilise its operations after years of mismanagement and allegations of corruption.

44 officials implicated

Ramatlakane said investigations revealed that 44 employees of Prasa, including senior managers, played a role in the awarding of the tender to Swifambo Rail Leasing.

Eleven of them had since voluntarily resigned from the rail agency, while the remaining 33 were undergoing disciplinary action.

“All 33 of them have been suspended and each one of them is going through disciplinary proceedings on the basis of the magnitude of the role they played in the awarding of the Swifambo contract,” Ramatlakane said.

ALSO READ: It will take nothing short of a miracle to fix Prasa 

Who is Swifambo Rail?

Swifambo Rail is behind the infamous “tall train” controversy. Under former Prasa CEO, Lucky Montana, the company won the R3.5 billion contract in 2013 to supply locomotives, but the rail agency ended up with trains that did not fit South Africa’s rail specifications.

In November 2018, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that “the tender was procured through corruption” and that Prasa’s specifications for the new locomotives were “tailor-made for the benefit of Vossloh [Swifambo front company], and thus Swifambo”.

Ramatlakane said the investigations on the multibillion-rand contract were carried out by the Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

“All of that determination on what has gone wrong is now part of the implementation in terms of board disciplining all the persons that were part of that,” he said.

Acting Prasa CEO, David Mphelo, confirmed that of the 33 disciplinary cases, 19 of them had been completed to date.

“We still have got six cases in progress and four cases that are of a legal nature. So we can’t get to DCs [disciplinary committees] until the legalities are complemented,” Mphelo said.

Siyangena’s R4.5 billion contract

Another controversial contract awarded by Prasa was in 2012, to electronic security systems company, Siyangena Technologies, for R4.5 billion to install an integrated security system at the parastatal’s train stations.

The initial budget for the contract was R517 million but it later ballooned to R4.5 billion after being extended in July and September 2014.

Ramatlakane said the matter surrounding the contract had not been finalised because Siyangena Technologies appealed the Pretoria High Court’s ruling in 2020, to set aside the contract.

“Siyangena as a company has appealed and the case will be heard on 21 August, in Bloemfontein, on the points they’re arguing about,” he said.

Ramatlakane added that some employees were undergoing disciplinary processes over the awarding contract, but he did not specify how many.

“All of them are undergoing a DC now, the others have been dismissed already, others are in court and others went to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).”

In the final installment of the state capture commission’s report, handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa in June, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo called for a special commission of inquiry into allegations of corruption at Prasa.

Zondo said the special commission of inquiry would uncover more corruption and wrongdoing at the struggling parastatal.

NOW READ: Zondo calls for inquiry into why Prasa was allowed to ‘side into almost total ruin’