Prasa moves to gag Montana

The acting chief executive officer of Passenger Rail Agency of SA, Collins Letsoalo, has accused the former head of the embattled parastatal, Lucky Montana, of being in illegal possession of a "classified" management report that could prove highly embarrassing for the company.

The man brought in to stabilise the agency said he intended reporting the possession of the report to the State Security Agency.

Speaking to The Times after a media briefing at the parastatal's head office in Pretoria yesterday, Letsoalo said he suspected that "Montana has our management report because where he sits he talks about things, findings".

He was responding to a claim, recently made by Montana during a radio interview, that board chairman Popo Molefe had increased the number of board meetings from four in a year to 16, dramatically raising the cost of remuneration.

"I'm going to do something about it. When someone has got information of the state and he is not supposed to have it, it is important that we check where the leaks come from and be able to deal with those matters," said Letsoalo.

He said possession of such confidential information was in breach of the "minimum information security standard".

"It is illegal... in government we classify these things, so the classification of the management report is 'confidential' in terms of [the security standard]. Therefore, we never gave him this report and he has acted against the prescripts and the laws of this country.

"I need to do something about it. I have to report it to State Security that I suspect he has information."

Letsoalo's threats against Montana are being made in the wake of reports that, in a leaked confidential letter, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters ordered Molefe to abandon a forensic investigation recommended by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

At a media briefing, Letsoalo asked Montana to "move on" and not try to "rule from the grave", saying he was now in charge of the agency.

Montana said the agency was "leaking like a sieve" and that he welcomed Letsoalo's intention to report the alleged leaks to the State Security Agency.

"They leaked information to journalists to tarnish my reputation," he said. "Now that the leaks are backfiring, information that they want to hide, they want to report it."