Hawks raid Prasa offices in Braamfontein over R18 billion tender scandal

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) had its headquarters in Gauteng raided on Wednesday. 

The offices based in Braamfontein were raided by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as Hawks). 

This comes after claims of irregular tenders being awarded have risen. The tenders are alleged to be around R18 billion. 

The Hawks pounced on the officers of senior executives and seized items such as laptops, cell phones, and documentation. 

As the investigation unfolds, the Hawks have been tight-lipped on what is unfolding. 

National spokesperson for the Hawks, Brigadier Thandi Mabombo, said: “An operation was conducted as part of an ongoing investigation. To protect the integrity of our investigation, we cannot disclose details about that operation.” 

IOL reached out to Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makanda, who said they would not be commenting at this time. 

“We are not in the position to comment on an ongoing investigation,” she said. 

In an article previously published by The Star, a whistleblower’s report stunned the country, alleging that two tenders awarded to Maziya General Services for a global system for mobile communications-railway redundancy network in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and Western Cape were awarded unprocedurally.

The letter compiled by a self-proclaimed whistleblower alleges that almost R2.7 billion in advance payments were made and that two tenders worth R17.4bn were unproceedurally awarded.

However, the publication also reported that the whistleblower may have lied. 

It released documents leaked from the Standard Bank, which show Maziya General Services has proven to have received bid bonds of up to R80 million from the bank, contrary to the whistleblower’s report. 

robin.francke@iol.co.za

IOL