Montana sticks to his guns, insists the Zondo Commission is biased

Former CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), Lucky Montana, has stood by his previous statements that the Commission of Inquiry Into State Capture is biased.

Montana is currently testifying before the commission.

He began his testimony by accusing the commission of being grossly unfair at times and having a predetermined outcome.

The ex-Prasa boss says in July 2019, he wrote a letter to the commission explaining his intention to give evidence, but the commission wanted him to focus on certain issues and disregarded some his evidence.

Montana urged the commission to listen to different sides of the story before accepting one side to be fact.

The former Prasa boss was implicated in alleged wrongdoing by several witnesses, including former Prasa Board Chairperson, Popo Molefe, and the parastatal’s former legal representative, Martha Ngoyi.

Commission Chairperson Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said he respects everyone’s views and is looking at all evidence presented before the commission.

On Prasa matters, Montana told Justice Zondo that he believed the state of the rail agency was in shambles.

“If you look at Prasa, Prasa has made major gains over the last 10 years. However those gains have been reversed over the period of three years and more specifically after I’ve left Prasa. We have invested as a country over R100 billion to change the face of Public transport. Infrastructure and I am referring chair between 2018 and today we have infrastructure of R30 billion that has been destroyed. And part of the reason is because we chose that security contracts are irregular and we are going to cancel them,” he says.

Montana says he is proud of what he achieved at Prasa within a short period of time and his achievements are probably the reason why the rail agency attracted so much attention from different quarters and political forces.

He says the manner in which Prasa issues are reported in the media shows where South Africans are located within society, their own fears and stereotypes.

Montana has accused Popo Molefe of having manufactured facts that made Prasa look like a dysfunctional organisation when it was not.

More of his testimony is in the video below: