PRASA, the state-owned entity responsible for South Africa's commuter rail (Metrorail), long-distance passenger rail (Shosholoza Meyl), and the Autopax bus service, was established in its current form in 2009. Under the leadership of Group CEO Lucky Montana (appointed 2010, resigned July 2015), the agency became a vehicle for massive procurement fraud.
The most notorious scandal involved the procurement of 70 Afro 4000 diesel and electric locomotives from Swifambo Rail Leasing, a company owned by Auswell Mashaba with no prior experience in rail manufacturing. Swifambo was a shell company registered shortly before the tender. It subcontracted the actual manufacturing to Vossloh Espana (now Stadler Rail Valencia). The contract, worth approximately R3.5 billion, was awarded in 2012 despite Swifambo having no track record whatsoever. The locomotives delivered were found to be too tall for South Africa's rail infrastructure — they could not fit through tunnels on certain routes, including the critical Cape Town rail network. The trains were also too heavy for some bridges and track. Only 13 of the 70 locomotives were ever delivered, and those were largely unusable in the configurations required. PRASA Head of Engineering Daniel Mthimkhulu played a central role in drafting the technical specifications, which were alleged to have been tailored to favour Vossloh Espana. Mthimkhulu was also found to have misrepresented his academic qualifications, falsely claiming a PhD in engineering.
In March 2018, the North Gauteng High Court declared the Swifambo contract unlawful and set it aside, ordering Swifambo to repay R2.6 billion to PRASA. In December 2020, Auswell Mashaba was arrested by the Hawks on charges of fraud and corruption.
The second major scandal involved Siyangena Technologies, which received over R5.6 billion in security-related contracts from PRASA. These contracts were for the installation of access control systems, CCTV, fencing, and related security infrastructure across PRASA stations. The Public Protector found that these contracts were awarded irregularly, with costs escalating dramatically through variations and extensions without proper competitive bidding. The systems installed were often non-functional or quickly fell into disrepair.
Additionally, multiple signalling contracts were awarded irregularly, contributing to the decay of PRASA's signalling infrastructure. The failure of signalling systems was directly linked to train collisions and safety incidents, including the January 2018 Kroonstad crash that killed 21 people and injured 260, and the October 2019 Mountainview crash in Pretoria that killed 4.
The Public Protector's landmark "Derailed" report (August 2015) found that PRASA's procurement systems had been systematically undermined. Key findings included: Lucky Montana exercised undue influence over procurement decisions; Daniel Mthimkhulu played a central role in the Swifambo specifications; board oversight was inadequate or captured; supply chain management processes were routinely circumvented; and the Auditor-General consistently issued qualified and adverse audit opinions for PRASA. The report made 17 remedial actions including referrals for criminal investigation.
The Zondo Commission (Part 2, published January 2022) dedicated substantial sections to PRASA, examining the Swifambo deal, security contracts, and the broader pattern of institutional capture. The Commission found that PRASA was used as a vehicle for patronage and extraction.
Popo Molefe, appointed PRASA Board Chairman in 2014, attempted to clean up the entity. He commissioned forensic investigations and confronted the legacy of irregular contracts, but faced significant resistance from politically connected interests and was eventually removed from the board.
The consequences for South Africa's working class have been devastating. Train set availability dropped from approximately 2,500 coaches to fewer than 400 operational. Metrorail services in Gauteng, the Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal effectively collapsed. Entire rail corridors were shut down. Over 1,600 coaches were vandalised, stripped, or destroyed between 2018 and 2023 as security systems failed. Copper cable theft stripped the rail network of signalling and electrification infrastructure. Millions of working-class commuters were forced onto minibus taxis and buses at significantly higher personal cost, deepening inequality and spatial apartheid by making it harder for people in townships to reach economic opportunities.