Two opposition parties on Monday welcome the announcement by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) that Daniel Mtimkulu‚ the former head of engineering services at Prasa Rail‚ had resigned.

Both the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Congress of the People (Cope) said they were pleased with the swift action taken by the Prasa board to lay criminal charges against Mtimkulu.

Prasa said earlier the resignation had come “…after Mr Mtimkulu was charged with gross dishonesty and fraudulent misrepresentation in that he had failed to produce of his engineering and PhD qualifications‚ which he claimed to possess” .

The agency’s chief strategy officer‚ Sipho Sithole said‚ “As part of Prasa’s governance protocols‚ a criminal case of fraud was opened against Mr Mtimkulu citing the misrepresentation of his qualifications.”

The DA said in a statement it would ask Prasa’s board chairperson‚ Popo Molefe‚ to request that Mtimkulu be made to “pay back all monies he accrued over four years in his capacity as head of engineering — a job for which he was entirely underqualified — making his earnings fraudulent”.

Cope said it was concerned Mtimkulu might have caused Prasa to take decisions that were seriously damaging to it because of his lack of engineering qualifications.