R80 million legal bill deepens Prasa controversy

The long-running legal tussle between South Africa's state passenger rail agency (Prasa) and Siangena Technologies has been going on since 2018, with the agency already facing losses of more than R80 million.

Siangena Technologies has again approached the court Forcing Prasa to pay R1.27 billion for the installation of an integrated security access management system at Prasa's 72 train stations it says it owes.

Prasa's dispute with Siyangena escalates

The documents show the dispute has already cost the embattled rail agency hundreds of millions of rand in legal fees, with some estimates putting the expenditure closer to R100 million over the years.

Correspondence dated January 2020 by Prasa's lawyers in the case, Werxmans Attorneys, shows that Prasa had accumulated unpaid legal bills of more than R19 million at the time, some of which were outstanding for more than 180 days.

The firm warned in a letter that failure to settle the invoices risked derailing major litigation, including the Siyangena case.

Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makanda said the question of the amount of outstanding legal costs had been asked by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), but Prasa had said “we need to reconcile and revert”.

This dispute has gone through several court processes.

Legal costs exceed R80m and R1.27bn claim

In 2020 a High Court in Pretoria voided the original R5 billion contract as unlawful, but ordered that an independent engineer determine the value of the work completed by Siengena.

In new court papers filed at the High Court in Johannesburg, Siyangena alleges Prasa has failed to comply with that order.

The company claims the independent engineer valued the project at approximately R5.16 billion, which was later reduced to R4.21 billion after removing profit margins.

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According to Siyangena, Prasa has paid approximately R2.93 billion, leaving R1.27 billion outstanding which it is now trying to recover through the courts.

However, Prasa has disputed the valuation and argued that it could not complete its valuation due to missing documents.

Prasad denies contempt of court

It has also denied being in contempt of court, and insisted that Siyangena should seek a judicial determination if it wants to enforce the engineer's findings.

Siyangena rejected this, pointing to Prasa's own 2024–25 annual report, which confirmed that the agency had already rejected the independent engineer's report and appointed external experts to conduct a separate assessment.

“Prasa's refusal to engage with Siangena was not attributable to its inability to do so. It was a deliberate and unreasonable refusal,” Siangena CEO Rui Ferreira said in an affidavit.

“Prasa does not want to agree on the value of the works and does not want to pay Siengena the amount determined by (the independent engineer) and/or reflected in its own financial statements.”

The company further argues that as of 2018, Prasa had access to extensive documentation of over 15,000 pages, thereby refuting claims of the rail agency's inability to get involved.

inability to engage

“Prasa has long had all the documentation and information necessary to calculate the value of the works. The figure of R1 857 038 000, excluding VAT, was calculated by Prasa following review and consideration of that documentation.

“Accordingly it represents an informed and considered assessment of the amount Prasa owes to Siyangena. That figure has also been confirmed by Prasa auditors,” he said.

In September 2024, Transport Minister Barbara Creasy said that Prasa had spent more than R5.1 million on legal fees in its unsuccessful attempt to get rid of former boss Xolani Matthews.

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