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'You are not welcome here‚' Prasa board chairman tells defiant Collins Letsoalo

Passenger Rail Agency SA board chairman Popo Molefe has a simple message for disgraced acting group CEO Collins Letsoalo: “You are not welcome here.”

Letsoalo defiantly sent an e-mail to the agency’s board on Tuesday insisting he was going nowhere. That was his response after being sent packing by the board when it was revealed that he had orchestrated a 350% pay rise for himself.

The Sunday Times revealed at the weekend that in addition to his R5.9-million package‚ he also demanded a chauffeur.

Molefe told TMG Digital on Wednesday that he would not tolerate Letsoalo’s nonsense.

“Our position is simple. Mr Letsoalo was never our employee. He was on secondment and as such we are sending him back to his employer‚ the transport department. We expect the department to institute disciplinary proceedings for bringing Prasa into disrepute.”

He said Letsoalo had been “ducking and diving” a letter of termination of his secondment‚ “which we had the power and authority to write“.

“We attempted to have the letter served on him‚ only to find that he had issued his PA with instructions to receive it. It doesn’t work like that and while his PA has a copy we will ensure that he also receives his copy.”

 

But Letsoalo told The Times there was “no need” for him to leave his job‚ adding that only Transport Minister Dipuo Peters‚ who seconded him to the position‚ could remove him.

 

Molefe disagrees. “All his blustering is about playing to a gallery. Our other message to him is: find yourself another gallery to play to because we are not listening.”

TMG Digital understands that security at Prasa’s head office‚ where Letsoalo had an office‚ has been issued with strict instructions to stop him from entering the building. His office has been locked.

Transport department spokesman Ishmael Mnisi said that Prasa’s board had been instructed to respond to the minister by Friday on the goings-on in the agency.

“At this stage this is our only response. Once the minister has Prasa’s report on the matter she will make a decision on the next step that needs to be taken.”

He refused to comment on whether Letsoalo had returned to his former position as chief financial officer in the department or whether he was still on secondment to Prasa.

Letsoalo’s secondment was ended on Monday after he called a press conference in response to a Sunday Times article that he had inflated his salary from the R1.3-million he was receiving while at the Department to R5.9-million – the salary of a permanently employed Prasa CEO.

In the conference he said the Prasa board had approved his pay rise‚ a claim the board denies and which saw him sent back to the department in disgrace.

 

 

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