The pretend engineer behind Prasa’s R2.7bn train disaster

Key topics:Mthimkhulu lied about qualifications, causing massive PRASA train losses.Convicted of fraud, sentenced to 15 years; cost taxpayers R2.7 billion.PRASA collapse tied to state capture, corruption, and mismanagement..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Jan Vermeulen.Convicted fraudster Mshushisi Daniel Mthimkhulu, who falsified his engineering qualifications, has cost the people of South Africa at least R2.7 billion through a botched train tender.Mthimkhulu was charged with nine counts of fraud, uttering, and forgery, found guilty of three counts on 31 January 2022, and sentenced on 3 September 2024 to fifteen years in prison.Once held up as the embodiment of black excellence and the success of the ANC’s education policies, Mthimkhulu’s lies came undone in 2015.Whistleblowers within South Africa’s rail industry had approached Afrikaans newspaper Rapport with information that Prasa had bought thirteen diesel locomotives for R600 million that it could not use.Specifically, the Afro 4000 locomotives ordered from Spanish manufacturer Vossloh España were too tall to safely operate on South Africa’s passenger rail network.Following the report, Prasa published a strongly worded and highly specific rebuttal to Rapport’s article, stating, “The article is grossly inaccurate, it is false and we reject it.”.Read more:.Bullet train to nowhere: Limpopo rail plan is a costly vanity project - Ivo Vegter.Prasa also presented Mthimkhulu as the highly experienced and qualified individual responsible for signing off on the locomotives as a counter to the allegations from anonymous sources.There was only one problem — the reporting was accurate, Mthimkhulu had lied about his qualifications, and Prasa would ultimately be revealed to be another casualty of state capture.Although he had claimed to have obtained a diploma and degree locally, followed by a PhD from a prestigious German university, the truth was that Mthimkhulu only had a matric.Daily Maverick reported that he had also forged an offer from German company DB Schenker with an annual salary of €200,000, which was about R2,800,000 at the time.Court documents show that Prasa matched this offer, affording him an almost 70% increase on his previous annual salary of R1,650,000.From poster child to cautionary tale.Mthimkhulu joined Metrorail as an intern in 2000 and rose through the ranks to ultimately be appointed head of engineering at Prasa on 1 April 2010.Cameron Dugmore, an ANC MP who was then in the Western Cape provincial legislature, told his colleagues about Mthimkhulu’s incredible story from rags to designing locomotives.“This is a black South African who has been given the opportunity to study,” Dugmore stated.“And it shows that the investment which the ANC has made in education to support public works and infrastructure is something to celebrate.”Even as Mthimkhulu’s failure and deception were exposed, former Prasa CEO Lucky Montana continued defending him, dismissing those who dared question his qualifications as racists.Montana has called Mthimkhulu’s conviction and sentencing a travesty of justice, arguing that there have been many cases where people lied about their qualifications and did not go to prison.“We heard about the white pilot who flew our planes for twenty years. They never went to jail,” said Montana, who was sworn in as an MP for the uMkhonto weSizwe party last year.“We had the story of one of our leaders, Dr Pallo Jordan, who was found to have falsified his qualifications. None of these people have been sent to jail.”Montana also stated that Mthimkhulu never committed fraud, then contradicted himself. “He may have called himself a doctor… and I spoke to him about that long after I had left Prasa,” he said.“Daniel Mthimkhulu is someone who makes things happen. If you look in the area of maintenance, he has done tremendous things not only for Metrorail or Prasa, but for South Africa and African railways.”Montana also defended his 2015 claim that Mthimkhulu was likely targeted because he is black, saying that he will stand with him until the end.“When I spoke about Daniel and said ‘because he’s a black engineer’… there are many, what you call ‘white engineers’ — people who are not what I call graduate engineers,” he said.“They went through apprenticeships and are not engineers in that true sense of the word. Yet they’re going so hard on Daniel, a young guy who has made a contribution. So, I’ll stand with him until the end.”Montana sequestrated.In 2022, Montana threatened to lay criminal charges against chief justice Raymond Zondo after he recommended police investigate Montana’s dealings while he was CEO of Prasa between 2010 and 2015.The Zondo Commission of inquiry, which former president Jacob Zuma established, concluded that Prasa was allowed to “slide into almost total ruin” due to state capture.Zondo also found that Montana appeared to have played a significant role in Prasa’s capture, necessitating further investigation.Last week, the South African Revenue Service obtained a favourable court judgment for Montana’s sequestration.MyBroadband contacted Montana for comment, but he did not respond by publication. Mthimkhulu could not be reached for comment.However, in 2019, Mthimkhulu admitted in an interview with eNCA, which he requested, that he did not have a PhD.“I failed to correct the perception that I have it. I just became comfortable with the title. I did not foresee any suffering or damages as a result of this,” he said.Taxpayers cough up R2.7 billion for useless trains.Although Mthimkhulu was ultimately convicted of fraud, his lies are not what inflicted the most damage on Prasa and the South African people.However, they did allow him to occupy a position where his decisions could, and did, cause untold damage to South African commuters and the economy while he drew an inflated salary.GroundUp reported that, according to the liquidation proceedings against Swifambo, the front company set up by Vossloh España, Prasa paid R2.7 billion for the locomotives it ordered.Of that, Swifambo sent R1.8 billion to Vossloh. Therefore, the money wasted on locomotives that Prasa could not use was much higher than the initial R600 million reports suggested.However, the Afro 4000 locomotive disaster was only the tip of the iceberg that wrecked Prasa. By 2021, the institution had collapsed due to state capture.According to a report by The Outlier and GroundUp, corruption and mismanagement at Prasa had caused passenger rail services to become increasingly unreliable and unsafe.Almost all of Prasa’s customers stopped using the train in this period, many opting for more expensive but reliable taxi and bus services..Read more:.Transnet state capture scandal: Former executives Molefe, Singh, Jiyane and Gama released on bail.With infrastructure not being maintained or replaced, it decayed. Security contracts were allowed to lapse, leading to widespread vandalism. The Covid pandemic saw the final destruction of the rail service.Stations were left completely gutted, and electric cables powering the trains were stolen. Thieves even took the actual tracks, bringing South Africa’s passenger rail system to a total, grinding halt.Since then, with additional taxpayer support, Prasa has rebuilt some of its infrastructure, new trains have been procured, and more people are taking the train..This article was first published by MyBroadband and is republished with permission

The pretend engineer behind Prasa’s R2.7bn train disaster

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