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CSOs demand that Prasa cease harassing whistle-blowers

Corruption Watch
Photo of a Prasa Afro4000 locomotive

Image: Col André Kritzinger, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Addressed to: 

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa 
Office of the President of the Republic of South Africa 
Office of the Speaker of Parliament 
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport 

PRASA, hands off whistleblowers  

We, the undersigned organisations, call on the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) to stop its harassment of whistle-blowers and corruption busters. 

We specifically call on PRASA to desist from its most recent attempts aimed at targeting Martha Ngoye.  

While head of legal, risk, and compliance at the rail agency, Ngoye helped save PRASA billions of rands. For her efforts however, Ngoye has faced unyielding attempts to have her fired, sued, or suspended, most recently at the hands of current PRASA chairperson, Leonard Ramatlakane, who since his assumption of the position, has led PRASA through losses in all cases brought against Ngoye.  

We are perturbed at the actions of Ramatlakane, who has now approached the Johannesburg Labour Court to take an arbitration award that made findings in Ngoye’s favour on review and to stay the award.  

President Cyril Ramaphosa has stated government will ensure better protection of whistle-blowers and take forward recommendations of the Zondo Commission in this regard, but what we see happening to the likes of Ngoye tells a very different story.

It reaffirms that state capture is not a thing of the past. The ongoing attacks aimed at whistle-blowers are an indicator that the state capture fightback is in full force, and that there is in fact very little political will to protect those who stand up to it. 

Ngoye led the charge against companies, who during the tenure of former PRASA CEO Lucky Montana, scored hefty tenders. Ngoye was involved in working against the multi-billion-rand Swifambo and Siyangena contracts at the rail agency which were set aside and declared invalid by the courts. She had testified before the Zondo Commission as a whistle-blower. Ngoye has also been credited as being part of stopping a R1-billion investment with VBS Mutual Bank in the months before its collapse. 

It must be noted that despite being suspended, Ngoye has not resigned from her position at PRASA. Yet, she has also not been allowed to return to work. The financial burden of the legal battle PRASA has waged is currently being paid for by herself and her colleagues – who have similarly taken a tough stance against corruption – out of pocket. She has also not been granted any physical protection in the midst of what has been an unrelenting onslaught against her. 

It is shameful that a woman who has seen to the continued functioning of a parastatal which is crucial to the lives of millions of people in South Africa is currently fighting not only to clear her name but for the right to a livelihood. 

If this is her experience as the head of legal, risk, and compliance at PRASA, then what about other public servants who may serve in less senior positions in state-owned enterprises and who want to blow the whistle? Will there be any protection for them?

Transparency and public accountability are prerequisites for a functioning democracy and in turn, effective service delivery. Practically, this means not only having in place policies and oversight mechanisms to prevent corruption and capture but actively encouraging whistle–blowing, so that when systems and laws are circumvented, there is still one last protective measure against public money being looted. Honest public servants and whistle-blowers are at the heart of a functioning democracy and must be supported and protected!

SIGNED BY:

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