An obscure group of security personnel is embedded in Prasa, with influence over the agency’s huge security budget – and more. Who put them there and why?
Gallo Images / Beeld / Alet Pretorius
Prasa planned to spend R200 million of its security budget on a rushed community watch project to hire thousands of volunteers.
The programme, spearheaded by chairperson Leonard Ramatlakane, was met with resistance from the security department and paused before it properly got off the ground.
Prasa is now reviewing serious risks identified with the project, though transport minister Fikile Mbalula insists everything is on track.
Desperate to halt the theft and vandalism of billions of rands in railway infrastructure, the new board of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) conceived an ambitious plan: 5 000 volunteers would be hired as patrollers, supervised by ANC military veterans, at a cost of about R200 million.
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Recently the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) purged a number of its executives. But many of those fired have returned to work after the courts ordered them reinstated.
On Tuesday, the Johannesburg Labour Court ordered, by agreement reached between the parties, that Hishaam Emeran (CEO of Prasa Tech), Tebogo Rakau (Chief Security Officer) and Nosipho Damasane (CEO of Prasa Rail) resume work on 15 March.
On 19 February, Prasa Chairperson Leonard Ramatlakane announced that the three executives, along with Group Company Secretary Sandile Dlamini, had been fired after an assessment found that they had “performed below par”. According to the statement, this was done “following a due process”.