Pretoria - Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has kickstarted a process to investigate allegations that its top engineer in charge of a R3.5 billion locomotive deal is not appropriately qualified.
Agency spokesman Moffet Mofokeng said on Sunday the agency had initiated a process to probe allegations regarding “Dr Daniel Mtimkulu’s non-registration with the Engineering Council of South Africa and his qualifications”.
It was reported that Mtimkulu – the agency’s executive manager – did not possess a BTech in engineering, a master’s or doctoral degree, which he claimed to have.
Mofokeng said Mtimkulu has been formally notified about the inquiry. However, he did not want to reveal if Mtimkulu would be suspended pending the outcome..
Mtimkulu had also come under fire for not having registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa, as required by the law.
“Prasa wishes to reiterate that this matter has no bearing on the locomotives compliance issue as the project involved many engineers from Prasa and Vossloh (Spain),” Mofokeng said.
During a recent press briefing at the agency’s offices in Hatfield, Prasa chief executive Lucky Montana boasted that Mtimkulu was sought-after by companies in Germany, where he had apparently studied for his master’s. Montana introduced Mtimkulu to the media as the head of the team that designed the Afro 4000 locomotives.
The agency grabbed news headlines recently after claims that 13 of the 70 diesel locomotives it had imported at a cost of R600 million have heights that could damage overheard electrical cables.
Montana had quashed the allegations that the locomotives Prasa procured from Europe had a roof height of 4 264mm. It was suggested the maximum height for diesel locomotives may not exceed 3 965mm.
The statement by Prasa with regard to the locomotives specification said: “The instruction specifies that the normal height between rail and electrical wire for a 3kv and 25kv network should be 5.0m and the minimum is 4.5m.
“The safety instruction allows for a tolerance of +150mm between the roof of the locomotive and the electrical contact wire. The Afro4000 locomotive’s height is 4.1m.”
Pretoria News