PRASA board to receive summons from Parliament

6th February 2018 By: African News Agency

MPs on Tuesday resolved to summon interim board members of South Africa's Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa to Parliament to account for the failing state of train services in the country.

A subpoena will be issued after the board members failed to pitch for a meeting with Parliament's portfolio committee on transport.

PRASA acting chief executive Cromet Molepo told MPs board members only received the invitation to appear before the committee on Monday, saying it was short notice.

The national transport department's Sipho Dibakwane refuted this claim, saying as soon as the invitation was sent out last week, the message was passed on to PRASA.

"We must indicate that we did communicate with PRASA and correspondence in the form of an email was sent to everyone in PRASA, including the acting group CEO's office and the company secretary's office. I, for one, even used the little airtime I had...to send SMS messages to everyone indicating the importance of this meeting," said Dibakwane.

"The problem is not with the department, the problem is not with the ministry. The problem is with PRASA itself."

MPs eventually resolved to give the board until 2pm as it only took around two hours to fly from Johannesburg to Cape Town. By 2pm, the board were nowhere to be seen, leading MPs to a decision to have Parliament issue a summons.