For nearly a decade, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), once meant to be the lifeblood of affordable transport for millions, was treated like a personal cash register by those entrusted with its stewardship.
A Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report paints a devastating picture of reckless mismanagement, deliberate flouting of procurement laws and brazen looting totalling R2.8bn.
And yet, almost three years after the SIU referred criminal charges to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), not a single executive has been held to account.
Six years after President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the investigation, the same names ― Lucky Montana, Nkosinathi Khena, Collins Letsoalo, Lindikaya Zide, Sibusiso Sithole and Nkosinathi Sishi ― remain untouched by the justice system.
The silence from law enforcement is deafening, and it signals a moral decay that extends far beyond Prasa’s derailed corridors.
The SIU report reveals a culture of impunity so entrenched that rules became optional. Security contracts worth more than R1.6bn were handed out without tender, repeatedly extended despite performance failures, and in some cases granted to politically connected entities such as Royal Security, owned by Roy Moodley, a known associate of former president Jacob Zuma. The same company had been previously terminated by Prasa for poor performance, yet found itself inexplicably rehired and richly rewarded.
Prasa’s looting represents more than a scandal. It is a betrayal of commuters, of taxpayers and of the democratic project itself.
This was not negligence. It was organised looting. It was the systematic hollowing out of a public institution meant to serve ordinary South Africans — workers who depend on trains to get to work, students to school and communities to connect.
The cost of corruption is not measured only in rands lost, but in the broken trains that no longer run, the stations vandalised and unsafe, and the livelihoods disrupted by a rail system in ruins.
The NPA’s explanation that the SIU’s referrals are “not trial-ready” and must undergo further investigation by the Hawks might hold procedural merit, but it rings hollow after years of inertia. Justice delayed is not just justice denied; it is justice abandoned.
South Africans have heard this excuse too many times. It is the same bureaucratic shuffle that shielded wrongdoers in Eskom, Transnet and other state-owned entities from the consequences of their crimes.
This latest revelation should serve as a wake-up call. Accountability cannot be a theoretical promise endlessly deferred. The SIU has done its work. The evidence exists. What remains missing is the political and prosecutorial will to act. If those who plundered public institutions continue to evade prosecution, then the message to every corrupt official is clear: steal boldly ― nothing will happen to you.
Prasa’s looting represents more than a scandal. It is a betrayal of commuters, of taxpayers and of the democratic project itself. The rot cannot be cleansed by secrecy or delay. The NPA and the Hawks must move decisively, transparently and without fear or favour. The time for investigation is over. The time for prosecution has come.
South Africa’s railways have already been derailed. Justice must not be next.
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