ANC election shadow looms over Prasa fallout
ANC politics appears to be driving the furore between the chairman and departing CEO
The spectacle playing itself out at the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) is about three things — politics, money and the ANC’s looming elective conference in 2017.
Despite what you may read, it has nothing to do with the size of locomotives, unfinished depots or bogus engineers.
As early as May, then-CEO Lucky Montana told the Financial Mail he was aware of an increasing amount of media interest in his personal affairs and the professional decisions he made at Prasa.
He linked this to a campaign that he said was being run against him by Prasa chairman Popo Molefe — an awkward situation, since both men are politically well-protected ANC players.
He has hinted at what he felt was Molefe’s interest in reallocating resources within Prasa for personal gain, as well as a penchant for involving himself in the operational matters of the agency.
Molefe, a member of the ANC’s national executive, flatly dismisses these allegations.
The high level to which the Prasa debacle has been elevated was clear last Friday, when Molefe and Montana were ordered by the ANC and senior government officials to cancel their respective press conferences, which the political higher-ups believed were designed simply to hurl more dirt at each other. This would serve only to embarrass the ANC, as the extent to which state-owned enterprises are being used for political ambitions would be put under the spotlight.
Both Molefe and Montana had planned to speak on why Montana was asked to leave.
Officially, the Prasa board said it had decided, after consultation with transport minister Dipuo Peters, that the statement issued about Montana’s departure the evening before the press conference was “sufficient”.
At his press conference at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg, Montana said he had intended to share with the public the “real reasons” for his exit, but had been prevailed upon by “the leadership” to hold back for a week.
These leaders, it is reliably understood, extend to the top of Luthuli House and the presidency. There is no united position among the ANC’s top six leaders on how to proceed with Montana.
This again focuses attention on Peters’ curious role in this saga.
The minister has, twice now, accepted and then appeared to rethink her acceptance of Montana’s departure from Prasa.
Yet she has made no public statements on any issues raised over the past three months against Prasa or Montana. People close to the ruling party say she has come under enormous pressure from within the ANC to act carefully on the Montana issue.
On July 23, public protector Thuli Madonsela will release the findings of a three-year probe into Montana. His opponents will hope these show he is corrupt.
They may be disappointed: provisional and interim reports from her office have made no pronouncements regarding the allegations of corruption against Montana.
Where his critics may find solace, however, is in the fact that those reports, as well as an investigation done by Deloitte on behalf of Prasa, identified supplychain management weaknesses across the organisation. Perhaps as might be expected from hotly contested state-owned companies with money to burn on big tenders, there are deep political ramifications.
Montana is being strongly backed by the SA Transport & Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu). The union, an affiliate of Cosatu, wants to keep Montana at the agency. And after Montana made it clear to the board and Peters this month that he had changed his mind about leaving, this wasn’t so inconceivable. But since last week’s standoff, someone will lose face.
Zenzo Mahlangu, Satawu’s general secretary, even raises the prospect of strikes should Montana be ousted permanently.
“If they rescind the agreement [to fire him], the public will lose faith in them and they will feel Lucky has won. But maybe it’s better to lose face now before there is rolling mass action and then they have to find a better way to manage this [board relationship with Montana].”
Mahlangu believes this is simply a power struggle.
“In some instances we see the board doing some executive jobs, which is not the job of the board,” he said. “The truth in this story lies in who is doing what and where.”
One of the more eyebrow-raising theories doing the rounds is that this fracas has everything to do with big names with big ambitions for the top offices in SA. They need money to make sure the way to the top in 2017 is secured.
Asked about the theory that he has been placed at Prasa to influence tenders, Molefe responded with angry disgust.
He asked why he should comment on the theories of “faceless people”.
“I know nothing about anything like that; any Tom, Dick and Harry can talk to you about that . . . it’s absolute rubbish . . . the board does not award tenders.”
Molefe said he was in government in the North West for 10 years and there was “not a single incident” related to him and improper influence of tenders.
“This is from the gutter; you can’t make me listen to this rubbish.”
Mahlangu, however, says that it is possible there is political interference from the board in order to ensure money flows to election war chests. “It could be part of it. With time we will be able to tell. With politics anything is possible.”
However, the high-profile casualty in this could be Peters.
Already there appears to be a rift between her and her deputy, Sindiswa Chikunga. A cabinet reshuffle, which is necessary following the death of Collins Chabane, could prove her undoing.
The pressure to stay in the good graces of ANC top brass is evident in her repeated flip-flopping over Montana’s departure: she accepts, then consults, then reconsiders, then accepts again.
Molefe’s board is relatively new. It hasn’t approved most of the projects which are critical to the completion of infrastructure needed to support the new trains. The most critical of the infrastructure upgrades are the test track and the depot at Braamfontein.
Neither tender has been awarded and the timelines for delivering the project on time and within budget are increasingly unlikely to be met.
The Braamfontein depot is one of the major areas of contention between Molefe and Montana.
Montana has been accused of acting improperly regarding the R2,5bn project to upgrade the Braamfontein depot.
Montana said last week that the decision of the board to jettison him was “not unexpected”, and that he had “no doubt . . . that the decision remains unlawful.”
Montana’s detractors could be disappointed over how this debacle settles itself.
The man is as highly rated as he is despised, with many playing his “Mr Clean” public-servant image against a more sinister and dangerous political animal, who has yet to be fully exposed.
The “leadership” who persuaded Montana to hold his peace last week will have their hands full this week as they try to find a way to keep both Molefe and Montana happy and allow them to save face. Or the solution could be that no-one saves face and all are purged to keep the truth about the ugly rent-seeking in the background from finding its way into the public domain.
The big loser, however, will be rail passengers. The trains are unsafe and delays create unnecessary cost increases and prevent new, safer trains from being put onto the network.
Prasa is at the centre of a huge rail modernisation programme. Part of this is restoring long-distance commuter rail services and modernising infrastructure that was designed soon after World War 2.
Over the next 10 years the company will spend R225bn on commuter rail systems. With tenders about to be issued for this money, the sound you can hear is of knives being sharpened.
ANY TOM, DICK AND HARRY CAN TALK TO YOU ABOUT THAT . . . IT’S ABSOLUTE RUBBISH . . . THE BOARD DOES NOT
AWARD TENDERS
POPO MOLEFE