Satawu chuffed with Ali

The appointment of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA's interim board has been met with relief, with trade union SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union saying the announcement was what it had hoped for.

Satawu general secretary Zenzo Mahlangu said yesterday interim Prasa chairman and former SA National Roads Agency boss Nazir Ali was an experienced manager who could instil a sense of sound governance to the country's embattled railways agency.

He said other board members, such as National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Frans Baleni and SA Local Government Association CEO Xolile George, were sure to turn Prasa around.

• Prasa board removal will derail appointment of permanent boss: MolefeFormer board chairperson of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) Popo Molefe has charged that the removal of the agency's board will scupper the process of appointing a permanent boss. 

"It is a better composition than that of the previous board," Mahlangu said.

The DA is, however, not convinced by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters' appointment of Ali as the rail agency's interim board chairman.

The party is also sceptical of the minister's motivations for announcing the interim board.

DA spokesman on transport Manny de Freitas said of concern was the fact that Peters had seen fit to appoint Ali, who was "the man who spent billions of taxpayers' money on e-tolls in Gauteng" chairman of the Prasa board.

• Relief and concern greet new Prasa boardThe announcement of the new Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) interim board has been met with both relief and concern‚ with trade union SA Transport and Allied Workers Union saying the announcement was what it had hoped for. 

He said two other board members, George, as well as Peters' former spokesman, Tiyani Rikhotso, were firmly aligned with President Jacob Zuma.

"Last week, Peters dissolved the board, which the DA held to be too little, too late, given the prolonged crisis at the entity.

"Speculation is rife that Peters only did this to avoid accountability for allowing the entity to be mismanaged," he said.

De Freitas said the opposition party would seek confirmation from the interim board that all investigations currently under way, including the probe into more than R1-billion in irregular payments in Prasa's current financial year, would continue.