Johannesburg - The rollout of the R51 billion modernisation programme scheduled to start from November will most likely be derailed as the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is not well geared to receive the first “test train” as neither the depot nor the test tracks are ready.
This comes as senior managers of the parastatal yesterday broke ranks with top management and the board.
These rebel managers represent what is called the “Save Prasa Campaign” and they have circulated a memorandum among all level of workers, which effectively petitions government for the reinstatement of ousted chief executive, Lucky Montana, and for the board to desist from engaging in operational issues.
“Prasa will not be ready to receive the first test train, because the depot is not ready and the test tracks are not ready. As to how much money Prasa is losing with the delays, you can make your own calculations on that,” a senior manager, who declined to be named, said. Another manager confirmed the delay of the project by saying that by now a team of employees should have travelled to Brazil for instruction on the new locomotives as well as branding, but this had not happened.
In a heady day at Prasa, senior employees and general workers, advocating for the reinstatement of Montana, were stopped from holding a press conference to brief the media. They were first ejected from a conference room they had reserved for that purpose and later from the cafeteria, leaving them to hold the briefing out on the street in Hatfield in Pretoria.
“We are standing firm, we have been silenced from day one, but our resolve and commitment to address these issues is unwavering,” a worker said.
Addressing the media were Sello Maluleke, a Prasa human resources senior manager for employee relations, Anele Mda, an human resources manager responsible for group stakeholder relations and parliamentary liaison, as well as Mofett Mofokeng, senior manager for communications.
“We call on the minister (for Transport Dipuo Peters) to act swiftly and considerably to ensure that Prasa is returned to its state of normality and of upholding corporate governance ethics,” the memorandum read.
Prasa spokesperson, Sipho Sithole, said the parastatal was not involved with the campaign and had not been authorised by it. “Some of the issues are beyond our mandate, it is not the management that appoints the board or the chief executive,” he said.
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