Ex-chair derails Peters’ claim

Recruiting a group chief executive of a large company is expected to take about six months, but at the state-owned enterprise (SOE) Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) it took two years to fill the void left by CEO Lucky Montana, the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture heard yesterday.

Testifying before Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, former Prasa chairperson Popo Molefe blamed his then political boss, former transport minister Dipuo Peters, for the debacle that saw billions of taxpayers’ money unscrupulously siphoned from the SOE via questionable tenders.

Contradicting Peters’ earlier evidence on why a replacement could not be timeously found, Molefe said the Prasa board began the recruitment process in 2015.

“Peters’ earlier testimony was disingenuous and false because the board wanted the CEO in place within six months,” said Molefe. We agreed Montana would work with the board in helping us identify a new CEO.

“Montana gave us earlier notice to leave the company, despite an undertaking to help us find a replacement. At the time of our persuasion, we were not aware of the malfeasance at Prasa, which happened under his watch as CEO.

“It was when we earnestly started to look at governance that was flouted, as well as the auditor-general and public protector reports, that we saw him leaving earlier.

“Montana had apparently played a similar game before, by threatening to leave the company because of a better offer elsewhere with an increase in remuneration – leading to his package being largely increased. But that did not help with our board.”

On why it took so long to appoint the new CEO, Molefe blamed Peters. “By May 2016, we wrote to her, saying the appointment was urgent.”

Peters blamed the delay on several factors: “It was important to keep the president [Jacob Zuma] abreast of what was happening. There were local government elections in August 2016. I was also in meetings with the deputy president,” he said.