DA assists contract Prasa Protection officers who were defrauded

22 September 2022

Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Thamsanqo Mabhena MP. Picture can be found here.

I recently assisted a group of Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) Protection officers with opening a case with SAPS. This after they were defrauded by a fellow colleague to pay for jobs at Prasa.

On the 25th of August 2022 I met with contract Protection Officers who have worked for the railway agency for between eight and fifteen years and have been passed through to different security service providers over the years, without the prospect of job security and benefits.

However in 2020, Prasa decided to insource protection officers to protect its rail infrastructure and other assets. As such the agency released a set of requirements as part of their advert for the new and permanent recruitment of protection officers. In part the memo read that new applicants needed to have extensive experience in the field and that it would be advantageous if they were working for Prasa on contract.

While most of these officers had the experience and worked on contract for Prasa, some were overlooked.

The desperation of these contract security workers saw some of them, 78 to be exact, being defrauded by a fellow employee. He exploited these officers’ vulnerability, by making them pay R1000.00 each in his bank account with the promise of permanent employment at Prasa.

Unfortunately, not only was this a scam, but they were seemingly engaging in corruption. They lost their money and did not receive the promised permanent employment. We thus subsequently opened a case a week later at the SAPS Johannesburg central police station against this scammer, case no (CAS 949/8/2022). The investigation is currently pending.

We believe the exploitation of these workers was ultimately caused by the widespread and rampant corruption at Prasa and the inability of the Department of Transport to make sure that the rail agency is functional.

Issued by Thamsanqo Mabhena, DA Shadow Minister of Transport, 22 September 2022