Popo Molefe denies appointing personal bodyguards at Prasa’s expense, says Zuma’s administration failed the rail agency

Former Prasa board chairperson, Popo Molefe, has denied allegations that he irregularly appointed personal bodyguards at the expense of the company’s R6 million. The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture has recalled Molefe to appear before it.

Former Prasa chairperson, Sifiso Buthelezi, who has filed an affidavit to the commission, is virtually cross-examining Molefe.

Buthelezi says Molefe weakened the board and abused his powers.

Molefe has denied this.

“With regards to the appointments of the black hawks, it is true that they were appointed but they were not appointed by me but by the company, the circumstances under which they were appointed is that my life was under threat and we could not rely on the security that Prasa had appointed at that time. And I personally had no role in determining who was appointed,” he says.

Molefe has, however, conceded to the commission that the company’s directors under his leadership gave themselves remuneration without the approval of government, the main shareholder.

Molefe says he had travelled overseas when he saw monies in his account which the board had approved without the approval of shareholders. He says he returned the monies to Prasa when he flew back and advised the other directors to do the same.

“It is true that certain remuneration was paid to directors, I was not involved in determining that In was out of the country. When I came back I found that there was monies in my account. I raise that matter with the company secretary and knowing that remuneration has to be determined by the shareholder, executive authority, the minister and when I found out that the minister had not approved, I took a decision myself voluntarily to say I’m back this money’. And I also encouraged other directors to pay back the monies.”

He told the commission that the former administration under former president Jacob Zuma failed Prasa.

Molefe says irregularities and corruption at the state-owned enterprise continued to thrive despite the board doing everything in its power to report malaise at the organisation.

He has accused the parliament portfolio committee on transport for failing on its oversight duties and the security cluster for failing to act on corruption at Prasa while there was extensive evidence.

Molefe’s testimony follows that of Ryan Marc Sacks in the video below: