Prasa’s Ramatlakane must be fired
27 July 2022
The DA calls on the Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, to fire Prasa chairperson, Leonard Ramatlakane. This after he blatantly lied at a media briefing.
According to reports, Ramatlakane claimed that the original exposé on Prasa’s blunder to buy trains that were too tall to use on South African railways was based on incorrect information. The Daily Maverick reported that the original Rapport story was in fact based on several eyewitness accounts with follow-ups written from various documents received from numerous credible sources, including a 2014 report from Prasa’s engineering team that found the Afro 4000 locomotives to be tall for the rail lines.
Ramatlakane also made claims that the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) debunked the media reports, when they had in fact confirmed them and highlighted the concerns about height of the locomotives.
Ramatlakane’s third lie that the locomotives were auctioned off and are now safely operated on South African railways, were rebutted by Traxtion, the private rail operator who bought several of the locomotives. While Traxtion did buy some of the locomotives, the company has confirmed that the trains are operating between Zambia and Tanzania and that they had to be transported to Zimbabwe via trucks as they could only complete the journey to Zambia via railway from there.