THE Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (PRASA’s) board of control on Thursday placed group CEO Zolani Matthews on “precautionary suspension”, says the parastatal in a statement.
Exactly why is unclear, with the board noting only that it involves an “alleged sensitive matter of a security breach and other contractual obligations associated with the employment contract of the group CEO”.
“By consensus, the board resolved that Mr Matthews should be placed on precautionary suspension to allow a detailed probing of the matter at hand to be concluded in his absence.”
The board says it will endeavourer to conclude the investigation as quickly as possible “in the best interest of all the parties involved”.
On Sunday, Prasa confirmed that it placed Matthews under precautionary suspension after finding out that he has UK citizenship.
In a statement, Prasa’s board said it found out about Matthews’ citizenship last week after the State Security Department declined his top secret security clearance.
The board said Matthews had deliberately failed to disclose that he is a British citizen.
“This came as a shock to Prasa and upon perusal of a declaration form signed on 8 May 2021 by Mr Matthews it was evident that he deliberately concealed this fact,” said the board’s chairperson Leonard Ramatlakane.
Ramatlakane explained that Matthews is on precautionary suspension to allow for an investigation to be done “without interference”.
Prasa has since appointed David Mphelo as acting CEO.
The board stressed that Matthews is still a Prasa employee pending the investigation into the issue.
