Madonsela surprised by Montana’s move
|Published
DURBAN: 050815 Thuli Madonsela gives a lecture at the UKZN Howard College PICTURE: GCINA NDWALANE DURBAN: 050815 Thuli Madonsela gives a lecture at the UKZN Howard College PICTURE: GCINA NDWALANE
Durban - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is “surprised and disappointed” that former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa chief executive, Lucky Montana, has decided to take her office to court on the findings she made against the rail agency.
She was replying to media questions yesterday after a talk at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on the importance of recognising women who fought for equality in the country.
Madonsela on Monday released a report calling for disciplinary action against Montana for flouting supply chain policies, costing the agency millions.
“He wrote to me after I released the provisional report, which he came to read in our office, and eventually took a copy. In what he wrote to me he said he was happy with most of the findings. He had one or two things that he wished we had handled differently, but he undertook to comply with the findings and remedial action,” said Madonsela. But she said his about-face was “consistent” with what they faced during the investigation.
“The narrative: he would say one thing and the documents he sent us would say a different story,” she said.
Conversations
Madonsela said since the investigation was continuing and even though Montana had resigned, nothing would change, “we will be having conversations with him” in the future.
In an interview on Radio 702 yesterday, Montana said: “I was surprised by the report. Both in terms of its findings and conclusion.”
Montana said he had submitted detailed evidence to the protector and that those who had submitted allegations could not substantiate any of them.
Montana said he was surprised Madonsela could repeat allegations on television and “create a kind of drama”.
He said he would challenge all of the findings, including those where he was said to be personally involved.
“They are false and factually incorrect… Public protector is not a judge,” he said.
“I am not saying… I have not made mistakes. I have probably made more mistakes than anyone at Prasa... but on the specific allegations and findings made, I dispute all of them, because there is no act of maladministration on my side, and that is what I want to challenge,” Montana said.
In her talk celebrating Women’s Month, Madonsela said inequality needed to be dealt with.
“Yes, government dropped the ball in terms of the Equality Act.” She said the generation of former parliamentary speaker, Frene Ginwala, knew that the constitution was not going to be enough and rushed to ensure the Equality Act was passed by the 1999 deadline.
She said there was nothing wrong with black economic empowerment, but as it was being implemented, it only benefited a certain class of the black community – “It did not carry everyone.”
She said the BEE Act was only prioritised because it benefited the advantaged upper class and disadvantaged upper classes. The act needed to be implemented properly.
She said that while focusing on the women of 1956 who marched on the Union Buildings to protest Pass Laws, we should not forget other women who also fought equality.
She said mentioned Charlotte Maxeke and Olive Schreiner among them, while after 1956 women like Victoria Mxenge and Priscilla Jana kept the flag of freedom flying.
DAILY NEWS