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Johannesburg - The Passenger Rail Association of SA (Prasa) played down the suspension of seven senior staffers who held an unauthorised press conference to raise concerns, saying the company was still on track for rail revival in South Africa.
''Prasa has not lost any key personnel that the organisation cannot replace. We are on track to deliver on our legal mandate,'' said acting Group CEO Nathi Khena.
On Wednesday, seven senior staff members were suspended with pay for allegedly using company corporate communications facilities to call what the company deemed an unauthorised press conference.
They are: senior manager Sello Maluleke, manager of marketing Bane Ndlovu, senior manager of communications Moffet Mofokeng, senior manager stakeholder relations Anele Mda (who also liaised with Parliament) manager of trade Chrisenia Sithole, senior manager for recruitment Lungile Gabela and manager for change management Lebo Nkosi.
Khena said they were ''very junior'' and were part of a group of only about 70 people who were "disgruntled" in an organisation of more than 18 000.
The charges that they will face at their disciplinary hearing includes organising an unauthorised gathering, creating a work stoppage, using company communications to arrange the meeting, putting the company into disrepute, dereliction of duty and acting outside of the scope of their work.
He was at pains to show where they fitted in to the staff organogram, saying the''Famous Seven'' were part of a group of 300 managers.
Their suspension comes after the sudden departure of former CEO Lucky Montana on July 16 and the sacking of engineer Daniel Mthimkulu who allegedly lied about his qualifications after a report that new locomotives ordered from Spain were too high for the country's present rail infrastructure.
Mofokeng was at the forefront of defending Prasa in the media during this scandal.
Earlier, Mda said more staffers had received suspension notices, but Prasa Spokesperson Sipho Sithole did not immediately have information on this.
Khena apologised for cancelling a press conference in July when Montana departed and said he was also sorry that journalists believed they would be attending a legitimate press conference when they arrived for the meeting called by the seven earlier this week.
He said the company was on a massive clean-up and a qualifications and skills audit.
An auditor general investigation had already identified problems it was not aware of, such as in supply chain management.
''Prasa is in the middle of an intensive investigation, which includes forensic and legal inquiries,'' he said.
''We will not be derailed from building a Prasa that we all deserve, and a Prasa that we all want.''
He said it was untrue, and possibly even a malicious act by an employee, to say that the train crash near Kimberley on Tuesday night, was because the locomotive was still in its testing phase.
The company had a licence to operate the locomotive, which was in the commissioning phase, not the testing phase as previously stated.
