Popo Molefe ‘made up facts’ to make Prasa look ‘dysfunctional’

Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) CEO Lucky Montana has told the judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture that former Prasa chairperson Popo Molefe made up facts to make Prasa look dysfunctional.

Montana appeared before Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo on Friday, 16 April, to give his testimony relating to his time at Prasa as CEO from 2010 to 2015.

The former Prasa chief left the railway agency in July 2015 after handing in his resignation amid allegations of him abusing his power.

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He was also accused of collapsing corporate governance at Prasa and allegedly inflated the value of contract for Swifambo Rail.

Swifambo Rail won a R3.5 billion tender in 2013 to supply locomotives but the rail agency ended up with trains that did not fit South Africa’s rail specifications.

During his testimony, Montana addressed his relationship with Molefe, saying the pair was on good terms between August and November in 2014.

“We had a very good relationship. We used to have one on one meetings together,” he said.

Last year, Molefe made a number of allegations during his testimony last year.

Among them were claims that the Prasa board was dissolved because of its investigations into corruption and that the ANC knew about Prasa corruption.

Molefe also told the commission that Montana was exposed for lying about the circumstances in which a R2 billion tender for the modernisation of the agency’s Braamfontein depot was awarded.

ALSO READ: Prasa ‘holy cows’ linked to former CEO were treated favourably, witness tells Zondo

Meanwhile, Montana has argued that Molefe was manufacturing facts that made Prasa looks like a dysfunctional organisation when it was not.

The former Prasa chief also said that Molefe’s allegation that he never provided documents about ongoing programmes and contracts was not true.

Speaking on irregular expenditure and audits at Prasa, Montana said saying the railway agency had never a qualified audit when he was CEO.

“Chair, I only appeared [before] Scopa [ Standing Committee on Public Accounts] once on issues of irregular expenditure that was in 2013 I think and the amount was R32 million.

“This amount had nothing to do with theft of money… it was the fact that Prasa, because of financial cashflows, couldn’t pay municipalities in time and they charged interest.

“The auditor-general said to us ‘because you are paying and paying with interest we then treat those interests as irregular or wasteful expenditure. So I had to go and explained it to Scopa,” he said.

READ MORE: ‘There was a sense of fear’ during Lucky Montana’s tenure as Prasa CEO, witness tells Zondo

Montana said Prasa had incurred R100 million irregular expenditure in the 2014/2015 financial year.

He said R550 million was the added in the irregular expenditure when he left the railway agency as justification to appoint Werksmans Attorneys.

“This financials do not support Mr Molefe’s [affidavit]… it supports the fact that after I have in 2015 July they added irregular expenditure,” he said.

The former Prasa chief highlighted that irregular expenditure grew by R20 billion after he had left.

This is after he revealed that Prasa reported R14 billion in irregular expenditure in the 2015/16 financial year. However, R12 billion of the total was not irregular.

Montana reiterated to the commission the Prasa board has misled Parliament on its representations regarding irregular expenditure.

Watch the proceedings below, courtesy of the SABC: