Metrorail fraud: Minister's answers leave much to be desired

The reply I received yesterday from Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele leaves much to be desired. I posed questions to the Minister on outstanding fraud investigations at Metrorail. The alleged fraud involved the electronic transfer of approximately R8 million from Metrorail's bank account into a number of privately held accounts in June/July 2008. A copy of the reply follows below.

I will be asking a series of follow-up questions to get to the bottom of this investigation.

The reply I received is problematic on two counts:

Firstly, the Minister alludes to two people being identified and that charges have been laid and processed against those individuals. What does this mean? And why has it taken three years for this information to be made public? The Minister later refers to a suspended six-month sentence and an ongoing police investigation. The outcomes of both the internal and the external investigations need to be clarified. A further unanswered question is whether this case has gone to court.

Secondly, the reply is unclear as to whether the suspected fraudsters are still employed by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). The reply simply states that the relevant persons have been "removed from their previous sensitive roles/positions" - implying that they may still be working at PRASA, but only in another role.

The Minister needs to clarify these uncertainties. These people stole R8 million from the public and have seemingly gotten away with it - possibly without even being fired. This crime happened three years ago and needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

Statement issued by Manny de Freitas MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Transport, August 30 2011

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