Prasa CEO Zolani Matthews Revealed to Be a UK Citizen, Suspended for Hiding Citizenship Status

• The CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), Zolani Matthews, has been provisionally suspended
• His suspension follows the discovery of his previously undisclosed South Africa - United Kingdom dual citizenship
• Due to this discovery, his security clearance application was denied by the State Security Agency

CAPE TOWN - Zolani Matthews, the CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), has been determined to eradicate corruption, which some people feel must have made other senior employees uneasy. He has been provisionally suspended after his dual South African/UK citizenship was discovered.

Prasa will shortly appoint an acting CEO to take Matthews' place during his suspension and the investigation of his contract in light of his citizenship. Paul Hoffman, an advocate and Accountability Now's director, says that Matthews' suspension does not hold water.

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Hoffman has alluded that the suspension of Matthews might be due to fears that he will disclose information about Prasa employees' involvement in corruption and that he was suspended to prevent him from gathering any more information, SABC News reports.

Security clearance issues for Zolani Matthews

Matthew had to apply for high-level security clearance to fulfil the mandated duties of his role as CEO. According to EWN, his application was denied due to the discovery of his dual citizenship.

Without the necessary security clearance, he is unable to properly do his job. Matthews signed a declaration in May, at which time he failed to include details of his citizenship.

The Prasa board viewed his omission as deliberate as this breaks his contract. The agency's chief information officer, David Mphelo, is undergoing questioning related to the investigation.

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Former Prasa CEO Lucky Montana speaks on state capture

Previously, Briefly News reported that former Prasa CEO Lucky Montana, who has been previously implicated in the State Capture Commission, shared his thoughts on what he believes state capture really is.

Montana spoke on the online platform Twitter Spaces and discussed how he believes the 'ruling elite' have misconstrued the irregular expenditure as being corruption. He further stated that state capture is nothing more than an ideology.

He claims that because state capture has been misconstrued as irregular spending or the theft of public funds, many persons who have been implicated in it have not been held accountable.

He stated that state capture was created by people who own the mines and control the financial sector when they realised that people like him intended to use the state to change the economic condition of the majority black population.

Source: Briefly News