The Citizen reports that Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on Tuesday told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) has been scammed by 3,000 ghost workers.

In December, Prasa became aware that it was paying full salaries to the ghost workers. The rail agency has since stopped the salary payments, but, according to the minister, nobody at Prasa has come forward to complain that they have not received their salary. Mbalula called the 3,000 ghost workers a “grand scam” and said it was uncovered during the Operation Ziveze campaign that was implemented to uncover irregularities at the state-owned entity. The transport minister said his department was determined to get Prasa moving in the right direction. He also said that said progress was being made in filling key vacancies within Prasa. A number of critical positions are currently occupied by acting incumbents, namely the posts of Group CEO, Chief Human Capital Officer, Chief Procurement Officer and Prasa Rail CEO.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Gareth Cotterell at The Citizen

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