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South Africa’s battered public purse has once again been looted, this time through a shameless manipulation of procurement regulations at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).
The Sunday Times has revealed that politically connected security companies fronted by ANC stalwart Paul Langa, have extracted more than R1bn from Prasa.
The facts are damning. Through a so-called “piggybacking” arrangement, Prasa sidestepped competitive tender processes and handed contracts worth hundreds of millions to Langa’s Reshebile Aviation & Protection Services and later to Reshebile Aviation Solutions.
This happened despite clear National Treasury regulations and a prior high court judgment stating that such backdoor arrangements were unlawful.
There was no legitimate procurement process, no service-level agreement and, at times, no contract at all. Yet, the money flowed.
It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the individuals driving these deals were motivated by personal enrichment and political patronage, not the public interest.
Treasury rules for piggybacking are clear and strict. The original contract must be lawful, the goods or services identical, the prices unchanged, and all terms remain the same.
Prasa and its alleged partners ticked none of these boxes. They knew better but chose to ignore the law, gambling that their political connections would shield them from scrutiny.
Worse still, when Reshebile Aviation & Protection Services was liquidated and lost its Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) contract, Prasa did not open a new tender or follow proper transfer or replacement procedures.
Instead, it simply shifted the lucrative work to Reshebile Aviation Solutions, another Langa-linked entity, again without competition, contract or transparency.
This episode is a clear warning that as long as political connections trump the law, South Africa’s public finances will remain a playground for the greedy and the unscrupulous.
The explanations offered by Prasa’s spokesperson are little more than bureaucratic smokescreens, contradicted by basic facts: Reshebile Aviation & Protection Services and Reshebile Aviation Solutions are legally distinct, with separate registration numbers, and there’s no lawful basis for treating one as the other.
This is not just a matter of technical non-compliance. It is a deliberate and cynical exploitation of Treasury regulations designed to speed up procurement in emergencies or special cases, and not to create a private gravy train for insiders.
When state institutions ignore the constitutional requirement for fair, transparent and competitive procurement, they invite corruption, waste and decay.
This episode is a clear warning that as long as political connections trump the law, South Africa’s public finances will remain a playground for the greedy and the unscrupulous.
The National Treasury, the auditor-general and law enforcement agencies must act decisively to investigate and hold everyone involved in this travesty to account. The looting of public money under the guise of piggybacking cannot be allowed to stand.
