JOHANNESBURG –Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa group chief executive Lucky Montana said the courts were wrong in finding that tenders at the rail agency were corrupt.
He has accused Judge J Francis of conniving with former board chair Popo Molefe when he refused to admit him as amicus curiae or friend of the court.He was testifying about contracts awarded to companies owned by Makhensa Mabunda, Siyaya and Swifambo. The Zondo Commission evidence leader Advocate Vas Soni put it to Montana that the courts had made damning findings about billions of rand in contracts awarded during his time.
But Montana disagrees: “I am not here to review this matter, I will just state the fact that I think the courts got it wrong.” He defended rail company Swifambo: “When Swifambo put a bid, I heard that there was no capacity and I laughed. The head of Swifambo is an engineer. Auswell Mashaba is an engineer.”He has admitted that he paid R80 million to the people who said they were fundraising for the African National Congress after the company was awarded a R3.5 billion contract by Prasa.