The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) has appointed COO Nathi Khena as acting CEO following Lucky Montana’s departure earlier this week.

The State-owned passenger rail firm, which continued to seek out a suitable successor after it was announced in April that Montana would step down at the end of his contract, said in a statement that Montana would not be required to work out the remainder of his notice period.

Montana’s contract had been due to end in March 2016, but he was “released” from his contract on Wednesday.

This emerged amid a myriad of allegations, significant public speculation and media reports that PRASA had bungled a R3.5-billion contract for a new fleet of trains for its long-distance passenger services, failed to hedge the deal and employed an unregistered lead engineer.

It had been claimed that the first batch of 13 new diesel trains, accounting for R600-million of the 70-locomotive multibillion-rand contract with Spanish train manufacturer Vossloh España, were unsuitable for South Africa’s railway network and were likely to cause damage to the overhead electrical cables.

Despite Montana’s attempts to reassure South Africa and put to bed any doubt over the safety or standards of the Afro 4000 diesel locomotive range, further damaging allegations surfaced – this time against PRASA’s head engineer Dr Daniel Mtimkulu, who played a significant role in the design and purchase of the new trains.

PRASA had initiated an inquiry after claims emerged that Mtimkulu was not registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa and that there was no record of him having studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he said he obtained an engineering degree before studying in Germany to get his doctorate.

However, PRASA said Mtimkulu was not a chief engineer but an executive manager for engineering services in the PRASA Rail Operations Division.

PRASA further stood accused of failing to hedge the exchange rate on the contract for the new trains, which meant the initial R3.5-billion price-tag for the new fleet could rise to over R5-billion as the rand depreciated against the euro.

PRASA planned to unpack Montana’s early release at a press conference on Friday.