City Press reports that a group of 700 former workers dismissed by the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) five years ago have accused the agency’s former CEO, Lucky Montana, of being the brains behind the burning of train coaches.
Last month, members of the National Transport Movement (NTM) won a landmark Constitutional Court (ConCourt) bid to be reinstated. They claimed Montana and those sympathetic to him orchestrated and covered up the arson. This was allegedly done in a bid to divert attention from alleged corruption at the parastatal. NTM deputy general secretary Craig Nte and deputy Gauteng secretary Robert Sebati claimed on Thursday that two people were responsible for torching the trains and were “rewarded for their deeds”. But, Montana dismissed the claims as unfounded, saying: “I was a group chief executive officer and did not have direct access to employees.” Prasa dismissed the group of workers after a staff protest in January 2013, during which coaches were set on fire. The damage caused was estimated at R42m. Two weeks ago‚ the ConCourt dismissed Prasa’s appeal against a Labour Appeal Court (LAC) judgment handed down last year ordering Prasa to reinstate the workers. It is estimated that doing so will cost the parastatal over R1bn. The workers marched to Prasa’s Joburg office on Thursday demanding their immediate reinstatement, in line with the court’s order.
- Read this report by Juniour Khumalo in full at City Press
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