Dismissal of PRASA Board does not let Peters off the hook

8 March 2017

Today, in the Portfolio Committee on Transport (PC), it was revealed that the Board of PRASA was dissolved by the Minister of Transport, Dipou Peters.

The DA supports the decision, but it is too little, too late and should not absolve Peters from accountability for the mess that the entity is in.

PRASA is currently under investigation for over a billion rand in the current financial year in irregular payments.

The announcement of the dissolution of the board came at the same time that the PC decided to launch an inquiry into the gross mismanagement at PRASA.

While the DA welcomes the decision by the PC to launch an inquiry into the governance challenges at PRASA, the DA is suspicious of the timing of the dissolution of the Board.

This would not be the first time that Minister Peters has asserted her power unilaterally over state-owned enterprises, and we believe that this move is an attempt by the Minister to escape accountability.

The presentations made to the PC in the past two days has made it abundantly clear that the Minister is not innocent in the disastrous state of affairs at PRASA. The DA will not sit by as yet another Minister attempts to evade accountability.

The DA remains resolute that the mess at PRASA needs to be resolved and that the Minister accounts for her role the crisis.

The massive amounts of wasteful expenditure at SOE’s could be used for funding the education of the lost generation, but because of mismanagement these funds end up in the hands of a corrupt and elite few.

Issued by Manny de Freitas, DA Shadow Minister of Transport, 8 March 2017