New blue trains stand idle as Prasa fails to make critical upgrades to depots

New blue trains, which promised a renewal in commuter rail for the country, keep coming out of the Gibela factory in Dunnottar, but the depots of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) are not ready to receive them.

The tenders for upgrading engineering services have run into obstacles, and a subsequent settlement agreement may be against the law.

On 26 August 2021, Acting Judge Stuart Wilson, in the Johannesburg high court, issued an interim interdict against Prasa, stopping it from implementing an over-priced tender for engineering consulting on upgrades to the Salt River and Springfield depots.

The tenders for these depots were won by the GladAfrica Group, which also trades as GladAfrica Consulting Engineering. The sole director of GladAfrica is Noel Mashaba, who is the younger brother of Auswell Mashaba, of the Swifambo too-tall trains fiasco.

But GIBB, a losing bidder, cried foul. Not only was GIBB’s bid almost R350-million less than GladAfrica’s, but GIBB had been disqualified for trivial reasons — references in the wrong place and a thinly-supported claim that their designs were too generic.

GladAfrica’s bid was also defective. Most notably, they had boasted of an agreement with Deutsche Bahn engineers. But by the time of the award, Deutsche Bahn was no longer involved.

Soon after the interdict, on 8 September 2021, Prasa’s then-CEO Zolani Matthews told Parliament that the process that Prasa followed in awarding the bid to GladAfrica was in fact compliant with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, and that Prasa was to take the court decision on review.

This commitment to review the interdict was abandoned, because GladAfrica did not take up the fight, and decided instead to enter into a settlement agreement with GIBB.

GroundUp has seen two settlement agreements, for the upgrading of Salt River and Springfield depots.

In terms of the Springfield depot tender, GladAfrica would cede “its right, title and interest in and to the Contract” and “all warranties and representations given to Prasa by GladAfrica in terms of the Contract shall be deemed to have been given by GIBB”. In exchange, GIBB would withdraw its review application.

GladAfrica would be paid for the work that it had already done, and Prasa would be liable for all the legal costs. The agreement binds the parties to strict confidentiality clauses, including that “GIBB shall not publish any articles or provide any comment to any member of the media or any other third party whatsoever regarding GladAfrica’s performance in terms of the Contract”.

Unlawful cession agreement?

Depot problems