Engineering Firm Claims Taxpayers Will Pay R346.5 Million for Prasa Tenders, Prasa Rubbishes Claims

• The Passenger Rail Association of South Africa has been taken to court by an engineering company that lost the bid
• The company applied to the Johannesburg High Court for an urgent interdict to halt two contracts awarded by Prasa
• The company claims the contracts awarded to GladAfrica leave South African taxpayers with a staggering R346.5 million tax bill

JOHANNESBURG - An engineering company that has lost a tender bid for a contract issued by the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa has taken the train and railway company to the Johannesburg High Court.

Gibb told the Johannesburg High Court that the two contracts that were awarded to GladAfrica will unnecessarily cost South African taxpayers R346.5 million, according to TimesLIVE.

The company has urgently applied to the High Court to suspend the contracts until there can be a determination of which company who have been justly awarded the contracts.

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Prasa argued that Gibb does not have an actual case and that the company simply cannot accept that it lost the case. GladAfrica did not object to Gibb's request for a temporary injunction but stated that it would contend for its tender contracts when the case will be fully argued at a later stage.

Prasa's new CEO says he will transform the company

Zolani Matthews, Prasa's newly appointed CEO says that he will work towards restoring Prasa and weeding out corruption in the company.

In a radio interview on Wednesday, Matthews insisted that his primary goal was to restore and mend the organisation after years of mismanagement, according to a report by IOL.

Matthews went on to say that part of the major difficulties facing Prasa is the volatility created by his predecessors who were in acting positions. He said that his mandate now is to eliminate and diminish the instability caused.

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Since his appointment, Matthews says that he has been able to deal with employees who were not meeting the standards they were required to meet.

Prasa's R200 million plan to hire volunteers as 'guards' put on hold

Briefly News previously reported that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa)'s desperate R200 million plan to hire 5 000 volunteers to patrol has been halted by newly-appointed CEO Zolani Matthews.

The plan, which was highly praised by Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula, was launched in March and called the People's Responsibility to Protect Project (PR2P), according to Daily Maverick.

The plan was put into place to try to curb billions of rand in damage to the railway infrastructure caused by theft and vandalism. The hired volunteers would be under the supervision of the ANC military veterans.

However, Matthews paused further recruitment for PR2P due to a number of problems identified within the project just days after his appointment as CEO, according to News24.

Source: Briefly News