The managing director of the company that won the contract to supply Prasa with the controversial Afro 4000 trains blew R27 million on a game farm in Limpopo after receiving his first payment from the SOE.<\/p>\n
This is according to a report by the City Press, which said that the director – Auswell Mashaba of Swifambo Rail Leasing – owns property worth R50 million after the deal.<\/p>\n
Swifambo won the R3.5 billion contract to supply the trains in 2012, and subcontracted the deal to Spain’s Vossloh Espana.<\/p>\n
Prasa made a payment of R460 million to Swifambo in April 2013, the paper reported, and five days later, a company called Zetacor Six – which has Mashaba as a sole director – purchased a luxury lodge for R27 million.<\/p>\n
Clear Bubbles Trading, another company owned by Mashaba, bought yet another luxury property in Waterkloof for R8 million soon after, followed by yet another Mashaba-owned company – Avraspark – purchasing a R3 million property in Hoedspruit.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Zetacor Six bought a R12 million property in April 2014.<\/p>\n
In July the Afro 4000 trains made headlines after Rapport revealed that the\u00a0locomotives were unsuitable for South African infrastructure<\/a><\/strong>, as the height of the trains is 4.264m, whereas the national limit was 3.965m.<\/p>\n The problems with the Afro 4000 trains continued<\/strong><\/a> after one of the locomotives derailed. Prasa officials struggled to establish what went wrong, because the trains only \u2018communicated\u2019 in Spanish.<\/p>\n In November it was revealed\u00a0that Prasa\u00a0wants to return the Afro 4000 trains which are unsuitable for local conditions, and get a refund for the R2.65 billion it has already paid for the order.<\/p>\n The full report is available in the\u00a0City Press for 13 December 2015<\/em><\/p>\n Prasa\u2019s culture of hiding information: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Prasa Afro4000 locomotive derails<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Public Protector\u2019s \u201cexplosive\u201d report on Prasa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Prasa<\/h3>\n