DURBAN - FORMER chief executive of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), Lucky Montana has warned that he might walk out of the State Capture Commission of Inquiry if its chair Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo displays hostility towards him.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily News this week, Montana said he was ready to testify after consulting with his family and lawyers, but gave a strong warning that if judge Zondo displayed bias and hostility towards him, he would not hesitate to pack his things and leave without uttering a word.
“I am not going to allow anyone to harass me, not Zondo nor his evidence leader will have a free ride and harass me. If they do what they do to others and try to harass me, I will just pack my things and leave without saying a word,” Montana said.
Montana is expected to testify before the commission on Friday.
On his long-standing assertion that Zondo is biased, he alleged the judge was pursuing a predetermined agenda.
Montana said he was certain Zondo was already discussing with evidence leaders how they could best attack him.
“It is true that Zondo has a predetermined agenda and I am sure that he is already discussing with his evidence leaders how to attack me, but I fear nothing because nothing they throw at me I cannot handle. I am going there to do what I have long said I would do and that is to tell the truth,” Montana said.
He told the Daily News that after spending almost 12 months asking to testify at the commission, he would use this opportunity not to grandstand and spill the beans, but to assist the commission to have a deeper understanding of how Prasa worked.
“They summoned me so that they can entertain certain allegations and not my evidence,” he said.
He also speculated that the commission might not afford him ample time to speak and present his evidence, making further claims the commission was not interested in hearing the truth.
He accused it of being biased to others while glorifying those it favoured. Montana concluded by saying that he did not need to be endorsed by Zondo as they were not friends.
“They gave others enough time to even discuss Donald Trump but will most likely not afford me a chance to present and detail my evidence because they are not interested in the truth, but chasing after certain people,” Montana alleged.
He further expressed disappointment watching Prasa, launched in 2009, collapse at the hands of those claiming that other people had collapsed the institution. He said he would prove to the commission that it was chasing after the wrong people and protecting criminals.
Montana said he was also prepared to account for anything that he might have done wrong, and assured South Africans he was not going to the slaughterhouse, but that the hunter would be hunted. The commission’s spokesperson, Reverend Mbuyiselo Stemela, did not comment on the allegations made by Montana, stating that he was, at the time, busy at a hearing.
thabo.makwakwa@inl.co.za
Daily News