The DA will request that the Chairperson of Portfolio Committee on Transport obtain the Webber Wentzel report ahead of the Committee’s upcoming meeting on the multiple corruption scandals surrounding Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). For Parliament to fulfil its oversight role, this report must be made available to the Committee and to the public.
This follows continued attempts by PRASA and the Department of Transport to keep the report hidden from scrutiny, despite the DA submitting a PAIA request to ensure that its findings are brought into the public domain. We submitted our request on 2 June 2025 and followed up in July and received no response.
The matter is made even more serious by reports that officials implicated in corruption allegedly received hundreds of thousands of rands in bribes in exchange for contracts, spending the money on luxury goods while rail commuters across South Africa are left to endure broken infrastructure and unreliable services.
The Webber Wentzel report is expected to reveal the full extent of corruption at PRASA, involving billions of rands in tenders allegedly awarded under irregular circumstances. Despite receiving billions of rands in public funding, PRASA continues to resist meaningful transparency and accountability.
There is no justification for a report with such potentially damning findings to remain secret for nearly a year while the entity that commissioned it fails to act on its recommendations.
Parliament, through its committees, has the constitutional authority to compel the production of documents and testimony as part of its oversight function, and the DA will use these mechanisms to ensure full accountability.
We expect answers from the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, and from PRASA.