The National Treasury has appointed Airports Company SA (Acsa) group executive Badisa Matshego as the accounting authority for the embattled Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) with effect from September 1.
The transport and rail utility has been without an accounting authority for the past few days after the Western Cape High Court declared the appointment of Bongisizwe Mpondo by transport minister Fikile Mbalula unlawful.
After setting aside Mpondo's appointment, judge Nathan Erasmus also ordered the Treasury to appoint an accounting authority for the embattled parastatal within seven days.
In the interim, Matshego will assume the functions of both the board and the Prasa CEO.
According to the Public Finance Management Act, if a public entity has a board, that board is the accounting authority. If it does not have a board, the CEO or person in charge is the accounting authority for that entity.
The Prasa board was dismantled by Mbalula in December 2019 and with the removal of the administrator the utility was left with no accounting authority.
Announcing Matshego's appointment on Wednesday, Mbalula said his department, under which Prasa falls, was not going to appeal the high court decision.
The minister said Matshego would continue with the task of tackling pressing challenges at the rail agency and ensure that the board, which is yet to be appointed, will “hit the ground running”.
Erasmus has ordered Mbalula to appoint a board for Prasa within 60 days.
“We have carefully studied the judgment and have therefore come to the conclusion that we will abide by the order of the court and will not appeal the judgment,” Mbalula said.
“Significant progress in this regard has been made over the last eight months under Mr Mpondo’s leadership ... I must commend and thank Mr Mpondo for the diligent work he put into the execution of the mandate we had given him. He has made significant progress in addressing critical challenges and sourcing requisite skills at management level,” Mbalula said.
Prasa, which has had five turnaround strategies since its creation in 2009, registered irregular expenditure of R27.2bn in 2018/2019. It received a disclaimer from the auditor-general in 2019.
Former Prasa chair Popo Molefe told the state-capture commission of inquiry in July that the ANC leadership was aware of alleged corruption at the rail operator. He told the commission that 69 cases relating to alleged corruption in multibillion-rand locomotives contracts were reported to the Hawks but “there was no movement” from the law enforcement agencies.
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