Please find English and Afrikaans soundbites by Dr Chris Hunsinger MP.
The Democratic Alliance demands that Transport Minister Barbara Creecy personally ensure that no politically-connected individual or company is involved in PRASA’s R1 billion Reshebile security tender scandal.
This is particularly important given the well-publicised ANC connections surrounding the principal figures behind Reshebile. Paul Langa has longstanding ties to the ANC and has previously served in ANC leadership structures, while other individuals associated with the company have also been linked to the ANC.
ANC connections make it all the more important that the investigation is completely independent, and has a mandate to probe political connections and politically connected individuals.
The PRASA board appointing an investigator into PRASA’s own failures is not enough.
Minister Creecy must publicly guarantee that the investigating firm will probe political connections to PRASA, the ANC, senior actors in government, or any implicated parties.
She must also ensure that the appointment process is fully transparent and independently overseen, and that the investigation’s findings, together with any consequence management, are released publicly.
After years of PRASA scandals, South Africans deserve an investigation that is independent in fact, not just in name.
R1 billion of public money being compromised at PRASA is worthy of a full scale, comprehensive investigation, that leaves no stone unturned.