Judge Makhubele slaps back at PRASA's corruption accusations
Among the allegations is that during her tenure as chair of the interim board at PRASA she side-lined Ngoye’s team to force through a settlement agreement with state-capture implicated contractor Siyaya.
FILE: Prasa trains in 2019. Picture: Eyewitness News.
JOHANNESBURG - Embattled High Court Judge Tintswalo Makhubele has slapped back at Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA)'s legal head Martha Ngoye’s accusations that she aided and abetted corruption at the State rail agency.
Makhubele is back before the Judicial Conduct Tribunal convened to probe allegations of gross misconduct against her.
Among the allegations is that during her tenure as chair of the interim board at PRASA, she side-lined Ngoye’s team to force through a settlement agreement with state capture implicated contractor Siyaya.
The agreement would have seen PRASA lose more than R50 million had it not been rescinded and in her evidence at the tribunal, Ngoye maintained that in her view, Makhubele had effectively aided and abetted what she regarded as corruption.
In her own evidence before the tribunal on Thursday, though, Makhubele said there was no support for the statement.
"And I wonder because if you accuse someone of corruption there must be some evidence that whatever I did was motivated by something and then it will be for whoever is trying me to make a connection. And so far as I’m concerned there’s not a single piece of evidence that I knew Siyaya attorney, I knew the people at PRASA."