A former senior official with South Africa's state-owned passenger railway, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday for fraud. Daniel Mtimkulu, 49, was found guilty in 2022 for falsifying engineering qualifications and fabricating a job offer to inflate his salary. His resignation came shortly before his 2015 arrest.
Mtimkulu's fraudulent actions included claiming non-existent degrees from universities in South Africa and Germany. Additionally, he forged a job offer, boosting his PRASA salary from $90,000 to $155,000. The Johannesburg court imposed a 15-year sentence for the main fraud charge, with six-year sentences for two additional counts, served concurrently. Mtimkulu must also repay $323,000 to PRASA.
While head of engineering, Mtimkulu orchestrated a significant yet flawed $100 million deal to purchase locomotives from Spain, which were too tall for local railways. The transaction is among several PRASA contracts allegedly linked to corruption. Between 2009 and 2018, over $7 billion may have been misappropriated at South Africa's state companies, including PRASA, according to a recent investigative report.
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