Security companies release Prasa train

LAWYERS representing two security companies in a legal battle with the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) said they will release the 10-coach train to facilitate the debt payment owed to their clients.

This comes after Prasa paid more than R7 million owed for services rendered by Supreme Security and High Goals Investments CC trading as Chuma Security during September.

Prasa had initially paid about R900 000 to the two companies before lawyer Mark Hess attached the 10-coach train, 109 computers, 12 laptops, 14 printers, flat-screen TVs and 13 vehicles on September 21.

Following this move, Hess said, a R4.3m payment was made. He said they also addressed a letter to the Prasa board of directors advising them that they were breaching certain provisions of the Company’s Act and would be held liable for damages in their personal capacity.

In the letter addressed to Prasa board chair Popo Molefe and acting executive officer Collins Letsoalo, Hess said Chuma Security employees had failed to turn up for work because of Prasa’s failure to settle the debt in terms of the various court orders.

“This has been documented in the last two high court applications. Notwithstanding the fact that this is solely due to Prasa’s fault, Chuma (Security) is being penalised R500 per short-posting. Our client is understandably upset by this unfair and improper imposition of penalty in the circumstances.”

Last month, the sheriff attached a seven-coach Prasa train to settle a R2.4m debt owed for July.

In the scathing letter, Hess said Prasa’s treatment amounted to abuse of a transparent, self-serving exercise to reduce Prasa’s indebtedness to Chuma Security due to its liquidity problems.

“Due to the above in particular, the steadily increasing frequency of the high court applications and the fact that Prasa has failed and neglected to pay court orders that stipulate immediate payment, we have been left with the ineluctable inference that Prasa is trading in reckless and/or negligent circumstances, in that it is commercially and or factually insolvent.”

Last month Western Cape High Court Judge Leslie Weinkove expressed deep shock at Prasa’s failure to pay the companies, saying that security guards employed by companies had risked their lives protecting commuters on notoriously dangerous lines yet Prasa didn’t want to pay.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters last week told MPs in Parliament that Prasa owed Transnet and several municipalities some R796m on accounts that have been outstanding for more than 30 days, and is not sure when it will be able to settle.

Prasa did not respond before deadline.