President Cyril Ramaphosa took aim at former Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) chair Popo Molefe on Wednesday, saying he did not do his part in dealing with the rot at the agency.
Ramaphosa was testifying at the state capture inquiry where he was asked to respond to claims by Molefe that the ANC top six ignored his cry for help to stop corruption at the embattled rail agency.
Grilled on this, Ramaphosa said it was “disingenuous” of Molefe to have expected the intervention of the ANC top six when he was the chairperson of the Prasa board, and had all sorts of legislated powers.
“The support that he sought in terms of the PFMA [Public Finance Management Act] was a given. We said ‘go ahead’, and I find it disingenuous that someone who is a chair of an entity would then say, ‘I am powerless and I need your full and total support’," the president said.
“And so the question is [whether] he should have gone ahead as the chair of the board. When you chair a board and you find there is malfeasance, your audit committee must act, your risk committee must act, and if it affects your CEO and CFO, your HR committee must act.”
The president said there was little that ANC leaders could do to advance Molefe’s will when he had all the power in his hands, while they did not.
“When you have appointed a person as a chair, you expect them to be robust in dealing with the challenges they have to deal with — not throw their hands in the air and say, ‘I do not have support.’ All the instruments are in their hands, from the board charter, the Companies Act, to all the policies in the company. That is where I find it strange that Mr Molefe would seem to be suggesting that he was helpless and needed the support of a higher body.”
Molefe previously told the Zondo commission that he met the ANC national officials in July or August 2016 to plead for their support in his efforts to root out graft at Prasa.
According to Molefe, the ANC leaders at the meeting — including Ramaphosa, who was deputy president at the time — promised to get back to him but never did.
Ramaphosa believes Molefe should have used the available avenues within Prasa to act against individuals he believed were corrupt, instead of expecting interference from Luthuli House on state matters.
For Molefe to go as far as suggesting that the ANC top six “hung him out to dry” was another exaggeration that should be dismissed, as it sought to paint the ANC as having applied a “herd mentality” on Prasa matters, he said.
Ramaphosa will appear before the state capture inquiry again on Thursday.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.