Prasa wants to recoup money paid for faulty locomotives

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) this week filed a lawsuit to recoup the money it has paid so far for the 70 new locomotives to replace its ageing fleet‚ the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday.

The arrival of the first 13 locomotives out of a total order of 70 new locomotives last year triggered a public relations nightmare for the rail agency‚ amid reports that they are the wrong height and will damage existing rail infrastructure.

Now‚ Prasa wants to recoup the money it has paid to Swifambo Rail Leasing for the 13 locomotives.

It also wants Swifambo to take back the locomotives.

Swifambo has until mid-July to respond to the latest lawsuit.

While its papers have not yet been filed‚ the M&G quoted Swifambo as saying in a separate matter that the company does not want to take back the 13 locomotives because they have done a total of 73‚000km since being delivered and have not been maintained.

This is the second action taken by Prasa against Swifambo Rail Leasing.

In November‚ Prasa chairman Popo Molefe approached the high court in Johannesburg to ask it to have the R4.8-billion locomotive deal it signed with Swifambo scrapped‚ after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela recommended that the rail agency review contracts of more than R10 million.

The contract‚ signed in 2013‚ was for Swifambo to acquire locomotives from Spanish manufacturer Vossloh España at a cost of R3.5 billion. The contract has been mired in controversy‚ including its cost escalation to R5 billion‚ due to inadequate hedging‚ as well as the accusations of the trains being too tall for the country’s rail lines.

Prasa is in the process of procuring new rolling stock as it aims to migrate from 1950s technology to a modern fleet which is up to world standards.

The rolling stock fleet renewal programme will deliver 5‚256 coaches to satisfy existing rail passenger demand on the current network until 2020.

Efforts to contact Prasa were unsuccessful on Friday.