Former Prasa group chief executive Lucky Montana has slammed the agency’s former head of legal, Martha Ngoye.
FORMER Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) group chief executive Lucky Montana has slammed the agency’s former head of legal, Martha Ngoye.
In his testimony at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture on Monday, he dealt with Ngoye’s Termination of Employment letter dated May 21, 2015.
Montana told the commission that Ngoye was “unruly and unco-operative”, and that she repeatedly dared him to fire her.
Montana said it seemed like Ngoye was telling him that she was not prepared to work with him.
Montana defended himself by telling the commission that he was not the kind of person who would just fire people without discussing the issue and attempting to find an amicable way forward.
Evidence leader advocate Vas Soni said that Ngoye had reported an “unhappy” telephone conversation with Montana.
Montana had previously told the commission that Ngoye was trying to tie him to irregular contracts and maladministration at the parastatal.
Ngoye and general manager of Group Legal Services, Fani Dingiswayo, have previously claimed that they attempted to prevent irregularities, maladministration and alleged corruption under Montana’s watch, but this led to him firing them in 2015.
Montana said Ngoye wanted to be seen as a corruption-buster, but she had allowed major companies to take advantage of Prasa.
He will continue giving evidence after the lunch adjournment, and will deal with the Swifambo deal.
He had previously told the commission that Ngoye should account for that corrupt deal because she was a member of the bid evaluation committee that recommended the company for approval by the board, and not him alone.
In the Swifambo deal, Prasa paid R2.6 billion of a R3.5bn contract with Swifambo Rail, but only 13 of 88 locomotives were delivered, and they were too tall for local infrastructure.
– Political Bureau
