Lucky Montana property funded with cash linked to Prasa contractor
30 April 2018
Cash for a R13.5m property owned by former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) boss Lucky Montana is linked to a beneficiary of Prasa contracts worth R4bn.
News24 is reporting that Montana's R13.5m property in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Hurlingham was paid for by a businessman and a lawyer linked to Mario Ferreira, owner of the TMM Holdings group.
A subsidiary of TMM Holdings, Siyangena Technologies, scored contentious contracts from Prasa worth R4bn during Montana's tenure as the state-owned entity's CEO.
According to the report, lawyer Riaan van der Walt and businessman Andre Wagner transferred, altogether, R13.5m towards the Hurlingham property transaction in 2015, before the property was registered in Montana's name.
Van der Walt's law firm has acted as Siyangena's lawyers in the past, while Wagner is linked to Ferreira through a game farm and hunting lodge Wagner previously owned a stake in. Wagner says he sold these shares to Ferreira before "reinvesting" the proceeds in a "property development" at the Hurlingham property now owned by Montana.
Van der Walt, Wagner and Ferreira all denied that the property transaction and related dealings were intended to gratify Montana for the contracts Prasa awarded to Siyangena Technologies.
Montana did not respond to queries about the property, but instead accused News24 of racism.
"I urge you to write more crap and Lucky Montana will remain standing," he wrote in an SMS.
Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry into state capture earlier this year, Montana provided some detail on other properties he owned. He claimed that he held a bond of just under R100 000 for his properties.
Montana did not inform MPs of his R13.5m property in Hurlingham.
