{"id":97549,"date":"2015-09-04T12:42:05","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T10:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=97549"},"modified":"2015-09-05T08:03:56","modified_gmt":"2015-09-05T06:03:56","slug":"prasa-chair-admits-locomotives-dont-fit-sa-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/97549\/prasa-chair-admits-locomotives-dont-fit-sa-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"Prasa chair admits locomotives don&#8217;t fit SA tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"_dwd st s std\"><span class=\"st\">Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) chairman,<\/span> Popo Molefe, has reportedly admitted that the controversial locomotives brought into the country this year are not suited to the local rail infrastructure.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This according to <a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2015\/09\/04\/New-trains-not-fit-for-SA-infrastructure-Molefe-admits?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter\" target=\"_blank\">EyeWitness News<\/a>, which reported Molefe as saying that the locomotives do not meet the &#8216;necessary criteria&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But technical teams are working together on that matter and locomotives are undergoing a series of tests under the railway safety regulator, we will wait for the railway safety regulator,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Prasa has been under the spotlight after it was reported that the Afro 4000 trains, purchased from Spanish manufacturer Vossloh Espana on a contract worth R3.5 billion, were too high for South African rail lines.<\/p>\n<p>The contract is for 70 locomotives, 13 of which have already been delivered to SA, at a cost of over R600 million.<\/p>\n<p>Having dismissed concerns about the specifications, Prasa reported in mid-August that an 11-carriage train lead by one of the new locomotives had derailed, injuring several passengers.<\/p>\n<p>Amid concerns about the Afro 4000 locomotives, it&#8217;s lead engineer, and company CEO, Lucky Montana, have subsequently been sacked.<\/p>\n<p>Public Protector Thuli Madonsela was tasked with investigating the organisation, and in a <a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/96631\/10-of-thuli-madonselas-findings-against-prasa\/\" target=\"_blank\">report published last month<\/a>, she found evidence of widespread maladministration and impropriety in the awarding of tenders worth R2.8 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The report found that Montana had acted in breach of the Constitution and improperly on a number of dodgy deals at the company.<\/p>\n<p>Montana has said he will have the Public Protector&#8217;s report reviewed in court.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on Prasa<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/96605\/prasas-culture-of-hiding-information-report\/\">Prasa\u2019s culture of hiding information: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/96131\/prasa-afro4000-locomotive-derails\/\">Prasa Afro4000 locomotive derails<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/95437\/public-protectors-explosive-report-on-prasa\/\">Public Protector\u2019s \u201cexplosive\u201d report on Prasa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/94899\/minister-orders-probe-into-alleged-financial-and-tender-irregularities-at-prasa\/\"><strong>Minister orders probe into alleged financial and tender irregularities at Prasa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prasa has reportedly admitted that the controversial locomotives brought into the country this year are not suited to the local rail infrastructure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":84557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,5695],"class_list":["post-97549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-prasa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97549"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97615,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97549\/revisions\/97615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}