Allegations of maladministration at Prasa still continue despite Lucky Montana’s departure

“The more things change at Prasa, the more they stay the same”, while issues of maladministration continue to this day despite Lucky Montana’s departure in 2015 as the state-owned enterprises’ CEO.

These are the words of Martha Ngoye, the group executive of legal risk and compliance at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), who on Monday took the witness stand at the commission of inquiry into state capture.

Ngoye told the chairperson of the commission, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that a number of contracts at the agency are before the courts.

“I think Prasa is sued on a daily basis and there is a lot of litigation there,” Ngoye said.

She said when compliance issues were raised with regards to some of these contracts, those who raised these concerns found themselves “in people’s bad books”.

Ngoye told Zondo that processes were not followed, among other issues, when Prasa entered into a contract with Prodigy, a company owned by Roy Moodley, a businessman said to be closely linked to former president Jacob Zuma.

She said when this was raised, “hell broke loose” at Prasa and that advice from the legal department to Montana regarding this contract “didn’t sit well” with the former CEO.

“The more things change at Prasa, the more they stay the same,” Ngoye said, adding that this is despite Montana’s departure in 2015.

“It’s very clear that issues around maladministration at Prasa still continue,” Ngoye said.

The commission went into the tea break when Ngoye’s testimony dealt with the influence Moodley had at Prasa.

Ngoye said her first encounter with Moodley was in relation to an advertising contract one of Prasa’s subsidiaries, Intersite had entered into with the businessman’s Strawberry Worx.

Ngoye told Zondo that the said contract, which was initially entered into with Umjantshi and a portion of it was later ceded to Strawberry Worx, has been challenged in court by Primedia due to procurement processes not being followed.

“In fact, the matter still has not been finalised … it’s a complex issue, chairperson,” Ngoye said.

She told Zondo of an instruction Montana had issued that Prasa should change law firms and bring on board BBM Attorneys despite the latter not being on the agency’s panel as a firm that it could work with.

“I didn’t understand the rationale of the instruction from Mr Montana … we were not comfortable with it,” Ngoye said.

She said the refusal to comply with the instruction resulted in her being summoned to a meeting with representatives of Strawberry Worx, which included Moodley’s son. At the meeting, Strawberry Worx representatives told her to remove the law firm working for Prasa at the time, Hogan Lovells, saying a failure to do so would result in the advertising portfolio being moved from Intersite to Prasa’s corporate division, Ngoye said.

Ngoye said that at some point after this meeting Montana’s then special adviser, Malini Naidoo, came to Intersite offices to remove the files of the advertising portfolio and when Ngoye questioned Naidoo about this, Naidoo was hostile towards her and told her that she was carrying out Montana’s instruction.

However, Montana denied to Ngoye having given such instruction and another “horrible” meeting was convened where the former CEO did not address the issue of the instruction.

“We didn’t deal, at that meeting, that he had authorised the removal of the files,” Ngoye said, adding that Naidoo then levelled accusations of maladministration and corruption against her.

“The meeting was a horrible meeting, chairperson,” Ngoye said.

Ngoye said the circumstances around the advertising portfolio and what transpired made it clear to her that Moodley was a “very powerful person” because his son managed the portfolio.

Watch the proceedings live courtesy of the SABC:

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