Lucky Montana, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa former chief executive (Photo by Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) is gunning for former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) chief executive Lucky Montana regarding more than R776 million in alleged corrupt payments from a contentious R3.5 billion locomotives tender.
Sfiso Buthelezi — the former finance deputy minister who chaired the Prasa board from 2009 to 2014, the period during which the locomotives debacle raged — is also in the SIU’s crosshairs after his company allegedly received more than R110 million from the rail contract.
Addressing parliament’s standing committee on public accounts on Wednesday, SIU national investigator Zodwa Xesibe revealed in a detailed presentation that 28 companies, including 16 directors, received a combined R776 million from Swifambo Rail Leasing in a process that allegedly contravened the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
In March 2013, Swifambo received a five-year contract worth R3.5 billion to supply Prasa with 88 locomotives for the state-owned entity’s long-distance fleet.
But the Johannesburg high court set aside the contract in 2017. And the supreme court of appeal referred to the “dishonest and corrupt conduct of [Prasa] officials” during the tender bidding and awarding process.
In her presentation, Xesibe said Swifambo received R2.6 billion from Prasa and delivered only 13 locomotives before the contract was nullified.
She added that R246 million was paid to the South African Revenue Service (Sars), saying the SIU was in discussions with the revenue service “to determine if all amounts due and payable to Sars in terms of applicable tax legislation have been made to and received by Sars”.
Xesibe did not give the names of the companies that received the alleged corrupt R776 million.
“The reason we are not naming the companies … is we are still investigating these companies — the companies have not been charged,” she told the committee.
But the investigator stressed that the SIU was looking into the R110 million paid to a company, the director of which was a former Prasa board chairperson.
“The process of following the money is ongoing and the investigation team is approaching the entities to obtain relevant documentation,” Xesibe said.
In November 2021, during the state capture inquiry, Buthelezi’s company, Sebenza Forwarding and Shipping, was implicated in testimony as having billed Swifambo for more than R100 million. Xesibe said the SIU would investigate whether work was done to warrant the payments.
On Montana, who was recently announced as an MP for Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party, the SIU said it wanted to recover funds from a company that allegedly received the vast majority of the R776 million in question.
“The [SIU] team is looking into the relationship between the former GCEO [group chief executive officer] of Prasa, [who was] the director of company ‘C’, which received most of the monies from the Sifwambo and the director of Sifwambo,” Xesibe said.
During his testimony before the Zondo commission on state capture, Montana denied any wrongdoing on his part during the bidding and awarding of the rail contract.
“I didn’t approve the Swifambo deal, but the board approved it upon recommendation from the bid adjudication committee,” he said in April 2021.