Grenupp

17/07/2015

Prasa CEO dismissal: Rapport editor reacts
Jul 16 2015 15:02
Matthew le Cordeur

Lucky Montana. Picture: File
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Cape Town – Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) CEO Lucky Montana was fired with immediate effect on Wednesday, the board said in a statement on Thursday.
It comes at a time when Media24 newspaper Rapport has been reporting on Prasa's R3.5 bn tender for new diesel locomotives that allegedly did not conform to SA rail line standards.
The Prasa board said that on Wednesday it resolved that Montana will not be required to work the remainder of his notice period, which commenced on 1 June until December 2015. "Mr Montana’s last day of employment with the Prasa will accordingly be 15 July 2015," Prasa said in a statement on Thursday.
Until the Prasa board finds a "suitable replacement," Prasa chief operations officer Nathi Khena would step into the role. Khena is also acting CEO of Autopax.

"As a board, we want to appeal to all of you to remain focused on your day to day functions and the responsibility that you have been entrusted with by the company," the Prasa board said. "It is imperative that we remain professional and committed to deliver on the broader mandate of this organisation."
Prasa will hold a press conference on Friday to answer media queries.
Rapport reaction
Rapport editor Waldimar Pelser, whose newspaper got a hammering from Prasa executives over a series of exposés it had published on an alleged R51bn tender blunder, reacted immediately to the announcement.
"Rapport published our first story about Prasa and Montana on 10 May, detailing problems with Prasa’s R51bn tender for new passenger coaches," he told Fin24 via email on Thursday.
"Our subsequent reports have shown a lack of due process in the awarding of contracts on Mr Montana’s watch, and raised concerns about questionable property transactions, linking Montana to companies who benefited from Prasa contracts.
"In reaction to our reporting on the Afro 4000 locomotives, Montana aggressively defended his own and Prasa’s conduct, and insisted that Rapport was conducting a malicious campaign against him and his team.
"This was never so," he said. "We are confident that everything we reported was in the public interest and we believe that the authorities ought to pursue further investigations into how Prasa is spending tax money.”
Breaking the story on trains not suited for SA rail lines
On July 5, Rapport and Netwerk24's Pieter-Louis Myburgh broke a story that claimed that South African railways officials imported brand new locomotives from Europe worth hundreds of millions of rand despite explicit warnings that the trains are not suited for local rail lines.

"In what may be the country's largest and most expensive recent tender blunder the ... Prasa has to date received 13 new diesel locomotives that are too high for the long distance routes they were intended for," he wrote.

The 13 Afro 4000 diesel locomotives that have so far been delivered to Prasa are worth R600m and form part of a larger R3.5bn order for 70 new locomotives, Netwerk24 claimed.
Prasa hit back two days later, saying the locomotives it acquired are the best in the world, and they are suited for local tracks.
“We meet the safety standards," said Montana, who briefed reporters in Pretoria on July 6 following the report. "We have bought one of the best locomotives in the world and we are not even apologetic about that."
The following Sunday, on July 12, Rapport journalist Myburgh revealed that leaked documents show internal Transnet and Prasa concerns over locomotive height, although Prasa still insisted its trains were suited for local tracks.

"Prasa’s own engineers warned in a report that its new Afro 4000 diesel locomotives, which were bought from Spain at a cost of R600m, could come so close to overhead power lines in certain parts of the country’s poorly maintained railway lines that they could pose a significant safety hazard."

15/06/2015

PLEASE TAKE NOTE AND SHARE OR FORWARD

15 June 2015
Dear Registered Interested and Affected Party
Per Email
Number of pages: 02
SEF Project Code: 506014
DEA Ref: 14/12/16/3/3/2/735
APPLICATION FOR AMENDMENT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION IN TERMS OF THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACT, 1998 (ACT NO. 107 OF 1998), AS AMENDED, AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REGULATIONS 2014 FOR THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRASA MANUFACTURING PLANT ON PORTION 23 OF FARM GROOTFONTEIN 165 IR, EKURHULENI METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY, GAUTENG
The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) intends to establish a manufacturing plant on Portion 23 of the Farm Grootfontein 165-IR in Dunnottar north of Nigel, within the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) in Gauteng for the development of a factory for manufacturing new rolling stock of train carriages. The proposed development is to be called Dunnottar Extension 7.
A Part 2 Amendment Application (Government Notice 982 of the EIA Regulations) is undertaken for the relaxation and amendment of the 30m wetland buffer zone for specific infrastructure points that cannot be practically avoided by the layout plan. Amendment is therefore related to certain conditions contained in the current Environmental Authorisation which was issued by the DEA on Friday, 27 March 2015. Public Participation Process (PPP) in terms of Section 32 (1) (a) (i) is undertaken in order to ensure that the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has sufficient information to make a decision on the amendment application.
The Amendment Application and associated documentation is available for a 30 day comment period from Monday, 15 June 2015 to Thursday, 16 July 2015 at the following venue (see Table 1) and on the SEF website (see below for more information).
Table 1: Public venue where the Final Amended EIR can be viewed
Should you wish to participate in the review process by contributing issues of concerns/comments, please visit the SEF’s website at http://www.sefsa.co.za (if you have not already done so). To comment on the project using SEF’s website, click on “Stakeholder Engagement”. Click on the “register” button and complete the compulsory fields to register on the SEF’s website. On completion of these fields, click on the “register button” and you will see “REGISTRATION SUCCESSFUL”. Use your login details to login in and view the Amendment Application for the proposed PRASA Nigel Manufacturing Plant and associated appendices. Name of public venue Name of Contact Person Contact Number(s) Viewing Times
Dunnottar Public Library
47 Rhodes Street, Dunnottar
Mr Vincent Moabelo
Tel: 011 999 9118/ 9116
Mon-Thurs: 08:00- 18:00 Fridays:08:00- 16:30 Saturdays:08:00 – 13:00
Should you have any problems in obtaining the information from the Internet, please feel free to contact SEF for assistance.
The comments on the Amendment Application are due on or before Thursday, 16 July 2015.
Meanwhile, should you have any questions, or would like to obtain more information, please feel free to contact Kagiso Motlhasedi/ Mpho Manyabe at Tel: (012) 349 1307, Fax: (012) 349 1229 or E-mail: kagiso@sefsa.co.za/mpho@sefsa.co.za
Yours sincerely
* Electronically signed
Kagiso Motlhasedi
For Strategic Environmental Focus
* An original signed copy can be made available on request.

14/06/2015

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09/05/2015

15/03/2015

GREATER NIGEL UNITED PEOPLESPARLIAMENTSAYS:
PRASA RAIL STOCK ROLL-OUT PROJECT MUST PROVIDE PROPER EDUCATION, TRAINING, and EMPLOYMENT & BETTER SERVICE DELIVERY FOR GREATER NIGEL & SURROUNDING AREAS !!!!
INTRODUCTION

As part of the Prasa contract, Gibela will build a R1-billion manufacturing site in Dunnottar, 10 km north of the town of Nigel, to produce the 580 trains, which will be manufactured in South Africa.

The 600 000 m2 manufacturing facility is also designed to house an engineering centre and training facility.

“South Africa has always had its own rail industry capacity, but because of almost 35 years of underinvestment in the rail system, the engineering and design capability, as well as the capacity to integrate, have been lost, says: CEO of Prasa Montana.

“As we embarked on this programme, we wanted a technology partner; we wanted the trains to be built here and we wanted South African engineering firms as part of the global supply chain in the rail sector. It is very important for us that we have this factory established here.”

Prasa and Gibela promise that the project will create more than 33 000 direct and indirect jobs over ten years, achieving local content of more than 65% on the rolling stock.


Gibela will train an estimated 19 000 people, including artisans, technicians, train drivers, over the life of the project.
The Gibela deal forms part of Prasa’s bigger rolling stock programme, which aimed to procure 7 224 new coaches at the projected cost of R123-billion over 20 years.

Gibela is 61% held by Alstom, 30% by Ubumbano Rail and 9% by New Africa Rail.

Alstom, an internationally recognized leader in rail engineering has had a presence in South Africa for over 100 years. Transnet's rail stock contains significant Alstom content and the majority of the fleet uses Alstom's traction technology. Alstom also provides a broad range of services and solutions in the power and energy sectors worldwide, including South Africa.

The Alstom group employs 93,000 people globally, and as Gibela's majority shareholder is ideally placed to share its expertise in suburban rail transport in the South African context, transferring skills and decades of technical knowledge to the local workforce.

Ubumbano Rail is a black-owned consortium holding 30% of Gibela, with the shares temporarily ‘warehoused’ by the National Empowerment Fund (NEF). Ubumbano Rail is made up of a number of companies that are keen to enter the rail sector space as suppliers. The three commercial entities in Ubumbano Rail are Khipunyawo Rail, whose members have been active in the rail sector for over 10 years; the Elgin-Identity Rail Corporation, an entity whose members have, among other things, heavy fabrication capabilities and wheel refurbishment accreditation; and Community Rail, new entrants to the rail sector.

Other shareholders in Ubumbano Rail include the PRASA Employee Share Option Trust (ESOP), the Gibela ESOP and an education trust. Gibela therefore has a black ownership structure in place that ensures its compliance with South African empowerment legislation.

New Africa Rail (NAR) is a new and dynamic rail entrant created to drive the process of rebuilding Africa through rail. NAR is focused on infrastructure projects including rail, ports, signalling systems, rail logistics, energy efficient technologies and rail real estate. NAR will ensure the participation by black South Africans in the Gibela project by driving maximum local procurement and will seek other investment opportunities in line with their business plan.
Shareholding
The Elgin Group shareholding comprises the following:
•Majority Shareholder: Jeany Industrial Holdings(Pty) Ltd - owned by Ian Donjeany (CEO of Elgin Group) and Lee Donjeany (COO of The Elgin Group)
•National Empowerment Fund – A catalyst of Broad based Black Economic Empowerment (BB-BEE) in South Africa which promotes black economic equity and transformation
•Sothern African Enterprise Deveopment Fund - US and African based private equity investor with investments throughout Sothern Africa
•The Elgin Group Management
Established in October 1994, the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund (SAEDF) is an initiative of the Former President William Jefferson Clinton of the United States, Former President Nelson Mandela of the Republic of South Africa, and the US Congress for the specific purpose of providing funding to stimulate the creation and expansion of small and medium-size indigenous businesses throughout southern Africa.

The R123 billion programme has been split into two 10-year contracts.

The first contract, valued at R51bn, was awarded last year to the Gibela Consortium, made up of French company Alstom and local company Actom.

More than 60 percent of all the train components will be locally produced, creating up to 33 000 direct and indirect jobs.

The 30 percent BEE stake will be held by three consortiums which together will hold 17 percent of the deal, an educational trust (3 percent) and an employee trust (10 percent).

The three consortiums are:

* Community Rail Services, which is made up of “a number of people with disabilities”, black female youths, Parmtro Investments and Kaelo Investments.

The directors include Anna Mokgokong, a businesswoman who is founder of Community Investment Holdings, a multibillion-rand company with interests in mining, pharmaceuticals, technology and logistics, and Mokganyetsi Sithole, a director at NKWE Platinum, a resources company which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

She is married to the ANC chief whip in the City of Johannesburg, Bafana Sithole.

The third director is Esther Letlape, an award-winning businesswoman who has worked in human resources at major South African companies such as Sappi and Sasol and is a director at PetroSA.

* Khipunyawo Rail, a black-owned enterprise already involved in the rail sector and made up of SA Freight Logistics, and Autism South Africa.

SA Freight Logistics is headed by businessman ThamiGwala, who is also a majority shareholder in the company.

He is the president of the Railroad Association of South Africa and SA Freight Logistics was one of the first BEE companies to obtain a Train Operator Railway Safety Permit from the Railway Safety Regulator.

* Elgin-Identity is a black investor enterprise. The consortium includes the Durban-based Elgin Engineering, Identity Capital Partners, which is a women-headed investment firm, and the Disability Empowerment Concerns Trust.

Elgin’s active directors are listed as chief executive Lee Donjeany, chief operating officer Ian Donjeany and managing director Vincent Chetty.

Identity lists its shareholders as well-known businesswomen Sonja Sebotsa, Polo Radebe (the former chief director of BEE at the Department of Trade and Industry) and Nedbank chief financial officer Raisibe Morathi.

Our concerns is that at NO stage has the community being briefed on this Project and there has been no communication and involvement with the community at large

We are not aware of any Community impact studies that have been conducted. We are aware of the Draft Scoping Report – the community was not able to participate due to a lack of awareness – this could be due to the manner in which the communication was delivered.

Our communities are poor (most households do not have a regular income – statistics will verify this), we have several challenges with social ills such as BULLYING, GANGSTERIZM, VCRIME, VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ABUSE, TEENAGE PREGNACY, SCOOL DROP-OUT, SU***DE etc. – UNEMPLOYMENT is very high especially amongst the Youth – this is relevant to all race groups – Blacks Coloured, Indian and White within the Greater Nigel community.

We would therefore demand ALSTOM, PRASA, GIBELA and Others to engage with us and include us in the process of creating a public awareness campaign about the DEVELOPMENT this Project would bring to the Greater Nigel community, one, two involvement in the construction development of the Project- this process falls within both organizations CSR and Enterprise Development policies. If applied according to these policies your investment in South Africa can have an incredible impact on the lives of many, many, many people.

Issued by: Greater Nigel United Peoples Parliament (GRENUPP).
86 Kreef Ave. Cerutiville, Nigel 1490
Tel: 011 403 2329/3029
Fax: 086 245 9627
E-mail: goldenmiles@webmail.co.za
Cell: 0839675742

BUILDING DEMOCRACY & DEVELOPMENT TO MAKE LOCAL COMMUNITIES WORK BETTER FOR ALL.

11/03/2015

Money should never be a solitary driver in business. If you don’t care about your product, and its purpose, you will fall short of your expectations: virg.in/did

28/02/2015

PLEASE TAKE NOTE GIBELA
This is our challenge in South Africa and this is why we are so passionate about large organizations providing growth development and capacity within local communities when building and developing industry within such communities RATHER THAN IMPORTING THE WORKFORCE - COMPONENTS FOR THE ASSEMBLY LINE AND SERVICE PROVIDORS - DOES THIS MAKE SENSE TO YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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25/02/2015

Media releases

Gibela supplier day – Thursday 12 March 2015
Published on Friday, 06 February 2015
The Gibela Rail Transport Consortium RF (Pty) Ltd will manufacture and deliver 600 passenger trains to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa over the next 10 years.

It is Gibela’s strategic mandate and intent to source local parts and equipment for the manufacture of the rolling stock.

Consequently, Gibela invites railway industry equipment manufacturers and suppliers – both established or in an early phase of development – to attend its Supplier Day on Thursday, 12 March 2015 in Johannesburg. Entities owned by black women as well as small- and medium-sized enterprises, are particularly encouraged to attend. The purpose of the day is to build relationships with railway sector suppliers and to share information on Gibela’s sourcing and supplier onboarding process.

Participants must note that this engagement is not part of a pre-tender qualification process, but rather an interaction that will allow Gibela to engage with the appropriate local market in an open and transparent manner about the rolling stock project and opportunities for sourcing.

Please note that registration is now closed. Further details will be communicated to registered participants in due course.

24/02/2015

Dear Interested and Affected Party

Please note that the Final Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIR) for the above proposed project will be made available for review and commenting for a period of 21 calendar days, from Tuesday, 24 February 2015 to Tuesday, 17 March 2015 for all interested and affected parties and state departments. Please find attached communication in this regard.

Should you have any questions please contact Ms Kagiso Motlhasedi at the contact details below

Kagiso Motlhasedi
B.Sc. Geology and Geography (UJ)
Environmental Assistant
for Strategic Environmental Focus (Pty) Ltd


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21/02/2015

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31/01/2015

PRESS RELEASE ON GIBELA PRASA PROJECT