Prasa chief engineer not qualified: report

08 July 2015 - 15:22 By Times LIVE, Sipho Masombuka
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The newly purchased locomotives seen on July 3, 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The newly purchased locomotives seen on July 3, 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Image: Gallo Images / Rapport / Felix Dlangamandla

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa's chief engineer is not officially registered with the profession's statutory body according to a report.

News24 reports that the Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa) rejected Dr Daniel Mtimkulu’s application to register with it in 2006.

They rejected his application because he only had a BTech qualification and a national diploma.

He needed a BSC degree in engineering and more than 3 years’ experience to apply to register as a professional engineer.

Mtimkulu claimed he had studied engineering at the the University of the Witwatersrand before going on to study in Germany to get his doctorate, but Wits couldn't find any record of him having been a student.

Mtimkulu, the head of engineering services at Prasa, was introduced as the designer of the Afro 4000 locomotives that have been reported as unsuitable for South African infrastructure at a press conference defending the trains.

The issue was based on the height of the trains - weekend reports stated that they were 4.264m high whereas the national limit was 3.965m.

Mosenngwa Mofi, Prasa's head of rail safety, said these reports were grossly inaccurate.

He said the maximum height of the locomotives was 4.1m as against the stipulated maximum of 4.5m.

"When the height of the AFRO4000 loco is taken at 4.1m and the contact [power cable] is at a minimum of 4.5m, the clearance between the top of the locomotive and the contact cable is 40cm - well above the minimum specification," he said.

At that conference Prasa head Lucky Montana had said that the furore was due to a campaign to paint Mtimkulu, as incompetent because he was black.

He said Prasa employees were being portrayed "as a bunch of incompetent guys [and] it is probably a race issue".

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