By Theodorah Waga Mawasha
PRETORIA-Transport minister Fikile Mbalula has revealed that the Public Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), has over 3,000 ghost workers in its system receiving full salaries.
The minister gave the report earlier today during a scopa briefing. The scam is said to have been discovered during an ongoing campaign called ‘operation ziveze’, which is aimed at uncovering irregularities at the SOE.
“This means that there was a system of corruption within the company’s human resources department orchestrated by somebody to steal money. That’s how broken PRASA is. The ongoing theft was stopped in December 2021. We stopped paying those people,” Mbalula said.
Forensic work was done to delve deeper into the verification of who was paid by looking into the bank accounts through payments that were made. Mbalula further indicated that the company has a high vacancy rate of top senior management positions occupied by acting incumbents.
“By end of February, 737 employees were acting in different positions at a total cost of R8, 843, 649,” he said.
Vacancies at the senior level are those of PRASA CEO, Chief Human Capital Officer, and Chief Audit Executive, to mention only a few. The minister did not confirm whether the 3,000 are part of PRASA’S strong workforce.
