Lucky Montana slams ‘highly compromised’ Zondo commission

Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) CEO Lucky Montana claims the judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is “highly compromised”.

Making an opening statement before his testimony on Friday, 16 April, Montana noted that the commission had a shortcoming of not affording the opportunity for those implicated “to tell their story”, further saying the commission was “biased”.

Montana accused Zondo of “unlawful” and “unfair” conduct over the statements the chairperson made during former Prasa chairperson Popo Molefe’s testimony last year.

“Chair, if we talk about justice your comments are actually strengthening Popo Molefe’s hand in Werksmans in them trying to force the Hawks… I think chair actually not only unfair conduct, but I think it is also unlawful in my view,” he said.

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Earlier during his opening statement, Montana said that Molefe and Werksmans Attorneys “were trying to influence” the Hawks while they were investigating Swifambo Rail and Siyangena Technologies.

“They actually took a company… one of the companies contracted to Prasa and they said to the Hawks ‘you guys do not have the capacity to investigate what is called complex investigations. They did that because they wanted to write a script that Lucky Montana and others… we must manufacture evidence inside the Hawks itself,” he said.

This is after Molefe made a number of allegations during his testimony last year.

Among them were claims that the Prasa board was dissolved because of its investigations into corruption and that the ANC knew about Prasa corruption.

The former Prasa executive has previously accused Zondo of allowing the commission to be used for witchhunts, alleging that the commission “cherry picks” what it wants to hear and “has a perceived outcome of the matter relating to Prasa”.

Montana said the commission was “highly compromised” citing evidence leader Vas Soni as an example because of the opinion the advocate wrote for Werksmans.

“I find this commission highly compromised. Some people have asked me to ask for you to recuse yourself, but chair I am here to raise issues and I am happy you are chairing this commission,” he said.

Soni has, however, denied the allegations, saying he was only briefed by Werksmans regarding criminal charges potentially being brought against the former Prasa executive and about another matter in Durban.

READ MORE: ‘There was a sense of fear’ during Lucky Montana’s tenure as Prasa CEO, witness tells Zondo

Montana further said he believed that work of the commission would be incomplete if did not look deeper into matters at Prasa.

“It is not only about irregular or fraudulent appointment. Chair, about the the fact that I submitted this evidence… a lot of reports shows that Werksmans and the companies working with them have actually based their reports, including those they have given to the Hawks, through unlawful service activity.

“My house has been broken into a number of times…. my son nearly died. So these are matters of life and death,” he said.

Watch the proceedings below, courtesy of the SABC: