Legal pressure mounts on NPA and Hawks over Prasa corruption claims

A High Court application has been launched to force the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Hawks to investigate and prosecute individuals and companies implicated in widespread Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) corruption.

Open Secrets, a civil society organisation and non-profit company, has hauled outgoing national Hawks head Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya and National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to force the law enforcement agencies to act against Siyangena Technologies and Swifambo Rails Leasing, which received lucrative contracts from the country’s troubled rail agency.

The troubles facing Batohi, who is due to retire early next year, appear to be piling up after she endured a tough few weeks at the helm of the NPA.

In its application, Open Secrets states that the two companies were awarded contracts worth billions of rand meant to modernise South Africa's rail system.

“Instead, they became conduits for fraud, stripping Prasa bare and abandoning millions of poor commuters to a crumbling transport lifeline,” reads the affidavit filed by Open Secrets director Hennie van Vuuren last month.

The organisation has asked the court to declare invalid and review and set aside the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigation’s [DPCI (the Hawks)] failure, within a reasonable time, to complete the investigations into the complaints of corruption and fraud at the Prasa.

This is in relation to Prasa’s decision to award and conclude the contract with Siyangena and Swifambo, as well as their implementation.

In addition, Open Secrets wants the NPA’s conduct in failing, within a reasonable time, to see to the completion of those investigations also declared invalid, reviewed, and set aside as well as its inability to take a decision, either to prosecute or not to prosecute, persons implicated or involved in criminal activities, related to the award, conclusion, and implementation of Prasa’s contracts with Siyangena and Swifambo.

Open Secrets wants the Hawks to be directed to complete their investigations, without further delay, and to take such further steps or file further reports as the court deems just and equitable.

It also wants the NPA to be directed to see to the completion of the investigations without further delay, to take a decision, either to prosecute or not to prosecute, persons implicated or involved in criminal activities, relating to Prasa’s contracts with Siyangena and Swifambo, and do so without further delay.

According to Open Secrets, the NPA should be directed to take such further steps or file such further reports as the court deems just and equitable.

“Due to the delay in the finalisation of the investigations into the alleged corrupt conduct of those who were involved in the award of these contracts, the NPA has consequently not decided whether to prosecute anyone linked to the unlawful Siyangena and Swifambo contracts,” Van Vuuren stated in his affidavit.

He added that as a result, an excess of nine years has passed since the criminal complaints were laid in 2015/16, yet no one has been held accountable, contrary to the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, chaired by retired Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

Hawks national spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo on Saturday confirmed that the DPCI received the notice of motion and that the matter is currently receiving the necessary attention.

“It is important to note that this is a complex matter requiring thorough investigation and ongoing collaboration among relevant stakeholders. We request time and space to allow investigation to proceed without compromise, to ensure that justice is served,” she said.

Open Secrets’ Ariella Scher said the Hawks and the NPA have filed their notices to oppose the matter, but not Prasa.

NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga did not respond to requests for comment.

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