President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed a proclamation empowering the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) for awarding the 2015 tender that led to acquiring unsuitable locomotives as well as the payment of “ghost” employees.
The SIU had been investigating Prasa since 2019, but the government’s new proclamation widened its scope, spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said.
Prasa has been the subject of multiple investigations, including the Zondo commission on state capture and public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “Derailed” report in 2015.
The SIU can claim back money linked to corruption, fraud and maladministration through the high court or a special tribunal. But it must refer individuals to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for investigation.
Under investigation by the SIU is the R4.8bn tender that attracted international headlines when it was discovered in 2015 the trains were too tall for SA’s railways. Popo Molefe, Prasa chair at the time, approached the court to have the deal scrapped even as the firm in question, Swifambo, had already delivered 13 of the required 70 locomotives.
Swifambo was a company owned by a former senior government official, Auswell Mashaba, that was formed only four months before the tender was awarded. In 2017, the high court in Johannesburg found that the tender was rigged and specifically designed to favour Swifambo and its “joint venture” partner‚ Spanish locomotive manufacturer Vossloh España.
The new proclamation also allows the SIU to prove the irregular awarding of a multibillion-rand tender to Siyangena Technologies to manage security at train stations and fraudulent liability claims paid out by the Prasa insurance department. The R5.5bn contracts awarded to Siyangena Technologies were set aside by the high court in 2020.
Also under investigation are 3,000 “ghost”, or irregular, employees highlighted by an internal probe in 2021, accounting for 20% of the workforce, who should not have been earning salaries. The investigation identified 1,480 employees on the payroll who could not be verified in person and did not have files with documentation.
At the time, 1,159 employees resigned during the probe when required to match to the identity photos and documentation on file.
In his final state capture report, judge Raymond Zondo criticised the top leadership of the country for doing nothing to support the Prasa board between 2014 and 2017 when it was trying to clean up the agency.
“The board was on its own fighting corruption at Prasa. The then president Jacob Zuma gave it no support. The then deputy president of the ANC and of the country, now President Cyril Ramaphosa, gave it no support. Indeed, all the top six officials of the ANC gave it no support. The parliamentary portfolio committee on transport was openly hostile to this board,” the commission report stated.
Parliament recently suspended small business development deputy minister Dipuo Peters, who was transport minister in 2013-17, when corruption at Prasa was pervasive following a complaint by activist group #UniteBehind.
The high court dismissed her bid to lift her suspension last month.
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