PRASA must account to SCOPA for Jacob Zuma Propaganda Project
12 August 2014
The DA will write to the chairperson of Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Themba Godi, demanding that the CEO of Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), Lucky Montana, be summoned to Parliament to account for the spending of public money on political propaganda unrelated to the mandate of the agency.
This follows the appearance of an insert in 8 national newspapers, entitled the "The Jacob Zuma Legacy Special", which is sponsored by the state entity.
In a reply to a DA Parliamentary Question, the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, claims that a newspaper insert, called the "Jacob Zuma Legacy Report" appeared in 9 publications and cost the taxpayer R4 642 725.57. It was commissioned "... to tell PRASA's story, through advertising, [and its] bold and ambitious plans to bring the best passenger rail services in the country..."
Yet the 16 page insert was nothing more than a glorification of President Jacob Zuma's previous term as head of state with no reference to PRASA's own mandate. The R4.6 million spent on this project is therefore constitutes wasteful expenditure with a purely political motivation.