Montana’s plea to State Capture Commission
FORMER Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) group chief executive Lucky Montana says he needs to be given an opportunity to tell his story and not only respond to allegations made against him. He made this plea to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo at the State Capture Commission late yesterday.
Montana was fielding questions related to his private property portfolio. He denied allegations that properties worth R36 million were purchased for him in exchange for lucrative contracts at the agency or that he bought a number of properties using Prasa’s money. He also denied receiving these properties as “kickbacks”. The claims stemmed from testimony and affidavits from several people, including state capture investigator Clint Oellerman.
Oellerman submitted evidence that Montana inappropriately awarded lucrative contracts to Siyangena Technologies that in turn purchased the properties for Montana. Siyangena Technologies was found to have unlawfully won billions of rand in contracts to supply security infrastructure to Prasa stations for the 2010 World Cup and subsequent contracts with a contract value of approximately R6 billion. Oellerman reported that from August to October 2014, Montana was involved in arrangements for the purchase of three properties totalling in excess of R36m.
Oellerman said these properties were funded through arrangements made by businessman Riaan van der Walt – a director of Precise Trade and an attorney who acted for Siyangena Technologies. Montana denied this, saying he only acquired four properties during his tenure at Prasa – three in Pretoria and one in Parkhurst. Montana said his relationship with Van der Walt was above board and that the dealings related to his business outside of Prasa which involved developing property.