GroundUp reports that as their trial got underway in the Gqeberha Regional Court this week, former Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) acting head Mthuthuzeli Swartz and businessman Nadir Mohiudeen pleaded not guilty to fraudulently selling 42km of railway line in the Eastern Cape.

The case was initially opened at the Elliot police station in the Eastern Cape in February 2013 after Transnet security guards stopped Akisisa workers from continuing to uplift the rail, which was believed to have been done with a flatbed truck and mounted crane. Swartz, the regional manager in the Western Cape at the time the alleged crime took place in 2012, was arrested in January 2019. Mohiudeen was arrested the following month. .The case has been beset by delays in the intervening six years, including a High Court review, resulting in the accused’s pleas being heard for the first time on Tuesday. The case centers on the Transnet-owned railway line between Sterkstrook and Maclear being sold by Mohiudeen’s company, Spanish Ice, for scrap to Durban-based company Akisisa. The state contends that Swartz provided fraudulent cover for the upliftment of the rail. The cost of reinstating the rail line was estimated at R59-million. In the six years between the case being opened and the arrests of Swartz and Mohiudeen, Swartz was appointed as acting CEO at Prasa. He served for three months before the Prasa board removed him in April 2018, because insurers would not provide directors’ and officers’ liability cover for him. Following the not-guilty pleadings on Tuesday, the prosecution called Adrian Samuels to the stand. As general manager at Akisisa at the time, Samuels negotiated the scrap rail deal with Mohiudeen and Swartz.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Steve Kretzmann at GroundUp

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