Court Case against Former Prasa CEO Mthuthuzeli Swartz and Businessman Syed Mohiudeen Postponed Again

The ongoing criminal case against Mthuthuzeli Swartz, the former acting CEO of the railway division of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), and Cape Town businessman Syed Mohiudeen experienced yet another setback in the Gqeberha Regional Court on October 26, 2023. The duo is accused of unlawfully selling a 42km stretch of railway line in Eastern Cape, a case which has now endured numerous delays over the past four years.

The case began in early 2019 when both Swartz and Mohiudeen were arrested. The several postponements of the trial have arisen due to Mohiudeen launching a review application in the Eastern Cape High Court in February of this year, in which he seeks further clarity on his charges.

The charges against the pair asserts that they sold the decommissioned railway line spanning between Sterkstroom and Maclear in Eastern Cape to cousins Adrian and Cedric Samuels of Cape Town in 2012. The Samuels cousins allegedly paid a deposit of R1.5 million to Mohiudeen's company, Spanish Ice, in exchange for the railway line steel, with an alleged 25,000 tons of it already supposedly held in storage at the Metrorail yard in Woodstock. At that time, Swartz was serving as Metrorail’s regional manager for Western Cape.

In absence of both Swartz and Mohiudeen from court, stand-in attorneys represented the state and Swartz. Meanwhile, no legal representatives were present for Mohiudeen. In addition, critical records indicating the need for arrest warrants were unreadable by both the prosecuting attorney and the magistrate, further complicating proceedings.

The case is set to resume on December 1, subject to visibility into the warrant records and the unsettled matter of bail money.