‘Govt hell-bent to hurt Prasa’

Prasa chairperson Popo Molefe says Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi is working tirelessly to ensure that the rail agency’s board is rendered dysfunctional.

Maswanganyi, who was appointed by President Jacob Zuma during a controversial Cabinet reshuffle two months ago, yesterday gave the Prasa board seven days to give reasons as to why they should not be dissolved.

This is despite a process that is underway to appoint a new board when the current term ends in July.

In his letter, Maswanganyi accuses Molefe’s board of fruitless and wasteful expenditure and for allowing corruption to thrive at the rail agency.

But Molefe hit back and accused Maswanganyi of “serving the same agenda” as that of his predecessor, Dipuo Peters.

He said that the newly appointed minister deliberately kept his ministry and the Treasury’s representatives out of the board to ensure that it does not function.

Molefe also alleges that Maswanganyi wants the board out so that he can put a lid on tender corruption investigations by Molefe’s board amounting to billions of rands. It is understood that investigations into tender irregularities reveal a network of beneficiaries linked to Zuma.

“The minister precipitates the destruction of a company with a R143-billion budget – a company that is at the core of the country’s economic activity. [...]Yet he refuses to meet with this board that he is now hell-bent to remove,” said Molefe. He says the letter received from the minister states that the board had not met targets.

“What the minister doesn’t say is that it is his ministry that blocked the appointment of a group chief executive. Furthermore, Minister Maswanganyi has still not met with the board despite several requests.”

Department spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi dismissed Molefe’s accusations as insinuations.

He said Maswanganyi had met with Molefe in May and that he was unaware of any other requests for a meeting.