DA Shadow Minister of Transport talks Prasa
Johannesburg – Manny de Freitas, DA Shadow Minister of Transport, writes about the ANC and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).
Manny de Freitas MP, DA Shadow Minister of Transport writes:
The last two weeks have been of the more dramatic for Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa). The Transport Portfolio Committee in Parliament held two days of hearings last week with members of the board of Prasa.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, submitted an apology to the portfolio committee advising us that she was in a hospital. The members of the portfolio committee thought nothing of it, as the minister never attends portfolio committee meetings. We are used to her being an invisible minister, as she is to the transport department, the 12 entities in her ambit and the transport sector in general.
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Imagine my surprise when, only one hour later, after the transport committee had adjourned and we were all in the Parliamentary Chamber for plenary, I see Peters in the House. On the next day, the second day of hearings, the invisible minister was again not present.
Over the years I have learnt that besides being invisible, Peters has a repugnance for doing her own dirty work. She did not have the plain decency to make the announcement herself that she was firing the board. Instead, an official in the transport department made the announcement on her behalf! To top it off, the minister has not provided reasons for firing the board, not even to the fired board members themselves.
Unbelievably, she retained Collins Letsoalo as acting group CEO of Prasa despite proof that he tried to fraudulently increase his salary by 350 per cent, and got it right! Documents leaked to me clearly show that this is the case. The invisible minister has these documents in her possession. In firing the board and retaining Letsoalo she has clearly demonstrated that she is biased.
The question remains: Will investigations into Prasa continue? Why has the minister not reacted on the investigative reports provided to her? Why have the police done nothing on this investigation and why have Saps officers been replaced when damning evidence came to the fore?
I suspect that further investigations into Prasa will effectively cease. Why do I say this? Last week, the portfolio committee unanimously agreed to institute an enquiry into Prasa. This week at the portfolio committee meeting, the ANC members of the committee did a 180-degree about-turn and squashed the enquiry. Clearly, they had been told to toe the party line.
I will not sit back and watch the ANC’s attempt to cover up any corruption. They can try as much as they want, I will be there doing what I legally can to expose corruption and bring guilty parties to book.
